From PESWiki

Technologies and concepts for generating usable energy from human activity.

For years I've been waiting for simple exercise-machine-based energy generators. With all the gyms in this country and all the fitness emphasis and machinery, why can't we marry energy production with fitness equipment? It seems a natural fit! - Kevin M. Trammel

Overview

• The mechanics of foot travel - Computer analysis that allows simulation of infinite two-legged locomotions has shown our favored modes of bi-pedal travel use the least amount of energy. (EurekAlert; Sept. 15, 2005)

Technologies

Flight

• Humans like flying squirrels - Only at 100 MPH off mountains in Norway in windsuits, called "wingsuit basejumping". (Vimeo Video; 3.54 minutes, Sept. 2008)
  

Hand Power

• Energy-Generating Spinning Wheel Provides Power for the Poor - A charkha, or spinning wheel, is a ubiquitous machine in India. The e-charkha, designed by RS Hiremath, not only produces yarn, but also generates electricity using a maintenance-free lead-acid battery, which functions as an inverter. (Inhabitat; Oct. 27, 2008)
  

• Kinetic >
  In a twirl with the Chukka Kinetic Music Player - The Chukka Kinetic Music Player combines electromagnetic induction with a unique design that encourages the user to twirl it around the fingers, throw it about and otherwise toy with it. The result - an eco-friendly personal media player that also gives you the stress relieving benefits of tactile interaction and repetitive physical motion (GizMag; August 11, 2009)
  

Mind Power

• Wadsworth Brain-Computer Interface - In France, Peter Brunner and his associates demonstrated a brain computer interface (BCI) that translates thought to text on a computer screen. (How Stuff Works; June 12, 2006)
  

Pedal-Power

See Directory:Pedal-Power - separate index page

Step Action

• ‘Motorized Knee’ gives runners a leg up - Designed by researchers at Japan’s Tsukuba University the 'motorized knee' supports the flex of the knee, which enables a runner to use 30 percent less muscle power compared to running unassisted. (GizMag; Dec. 17, 2009)
  

• Powerbocking: jump like a kangaroo, run like a gazelle & stride like a giant - They’re enough to fulfill anyone’s dreams of bionic powers: jump six feet in the air (and over cars, if you’re in the mood), run at 25 miles an hour or more, and stride nine feet at a time. But, instead of costing Six Million Dollars, you can invest in a pair of “powerbocks” for just a couple of hundred. (GizMag; July 27, 2009)
  

• nPower PEG Charges Your Gadgets From The Spring In Your Step - The nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator) is a device that harvests the kinetic energy of your walking and turns it into electricity, charging most devices up to 80% with just one hour’s worth of walking. (Oh Gizmo!";; Jan. 10, 2009)
  

• Strike-Heel Generation - This directory is dedicated to piezoelectric and heel-strike generation systems for generating power from "good vibrations". (PESWiki; June 20, 2008)
  

• Freeplay Energy - Self-Sufficient products give you freedom from traditional power sources, combining wind-up and rechargeable power into portable radios, flashlights, lanterns and mobile phone chargers. The FreeCharge Portable Energy Source, powered by human step action, wind, solar or plug power, is able to jump start a vehicle battery or power a variety of accessories.
  

• Backpack straps harvest energy to power electronics - All that rubbing of your backpack straps on your shoulders may be put to good use, now that researchers have designed a novel type of energy harvesting backpack with straps made of a piezoelectric material that can convert the mechanical strain on the straps into electrical energy. (PhysOrg'; Sept. 13, 2007)
  

• Generating Power From Revolving Doors - Fluxxlab in New York is developing a "Revolution Door" that is basically a turbine powered by people as they enter or exit a building, using a redesigned central core to efficiently convert the motion of the spinning door into electricity. (Inhabitat; Feb. 7, 2008)
  

• Penn Biologists Invent Power-Generating Backpack - The "Suspended-load Backpack" converts mechanical energy from walking into electricity -- up to 7.4 Watts -- more than enough energy to power portable electronic devices for soldiers, field researchers or disaster relief-workers. (PESN; Sept. 8, 2005)
  

• Applied Motion - The SpringWalker body amplifier is a new breed of vehicles with legs and an energy recovery system to enhance the human running gait. Leg force is increased and body weight distributed by means of a leveraged exoskeleton and a single spring is coupled to both legs. It will have you trotting four-minute miles without tiring and scrambling up a mountain like an ATV.
  

• Applied Innovative Technologies - NightStar® LED Magnetic Force Shake Flashlight is the perfect emergency flashlight - waterproof, no batteries, bulbs or maintenance required.
  

• Phones recharge themselves with physical activity - The YoYo will slowly roll up and down in front of you, generating kinetic energy to repower itself. The U-Turn recovers energy from the opening and closing of the keypad to recharge its batteries. The Runaway can capture the kinetic energy you're creating when moving about. ModeLabs Group (Mobile Magazine; December 20, 2006)
  

• Wilderness Solutions - Using air and the heat of compression, like a diesel engine, this remarkable device creates a burning ember with a single push. The Fire Piston is a primitive fire starting device that reliably lights a campfire without matches, lighter or magnesium.
  

• Fossil Kinetic Watches: Never Change a Battery Again - Fossil now has a line of watches that are powered by the motion of your arm movement, requiring no winding or replacement of batteries. Carries 11-year warranty, and costs $95; in contrast to the Ventura kinetic watch that costs $2,200. (TreeHugger; June 19, 2006)
  

Shake

• DIY / Lighting > How to make your own hand powered shake led flashlight - Simple, complete set of instructions call for diodes, a resistor, a super cap, magnet wire, a magnet, sponge, and of course an LED. (Electronic Crafts; March 14, 2008)
  

Stretch/Pull

• Imagine_PS Power Station Electric Hybrid Vehicle - HumanCar - Fred Flintstone, move over. See how the "HumanCar" hits 60 mph on pure elbow grease and zero fossil fuel. To be made available on Earth Day, 2009. Video) (CNN; Oct. 8, 2008)
  

• Textronics - Electronic textiles can collect, transmit, and receive energy. Circuitry, sensors or functional components embedded in the structure of the fiber or fabric enable a garment to become an electronic medium. These materials can warm, illuminate, conduct, and sense, using the stretch and recovery properties of elastomeric fibers to "power" this medium, creating stretchable interactive electronic systems.
  

• Potenco - Has developed a portable power generator that you simply pull a cord for a minute and generate electric power for up to several hours. This portable green power can be used to power mobile phones, PDAs, lighting products, and digital cameras.
  

• Yo-Yo Powered MP3 Player - The inventors estimate that between 10-12 tosses per hour are sufficient for continuous music play. A wireless headset allows the user to listen to music while yo-yoing. (TreeHugger; Aug. 26, 2006)
  

• REGEN - A yo-yo/MP3 player complete with wireless headset and docking station.

Leverage

• Moving Big Rocks - Wally Wallington has demonstrated that he can lift a Stonehenge-sized pillar weighing 22,000 lbs and moved a barn over 300 ft. What makes this so special is that he does it using only himself, gravity, and his incredible ingenuity. (J Walk Blog; Oct. 17, 2006)
  

Push

• Revolving Door Helps Power Train Station - Okay, the lights in the door (go round and round) of a coffee shop in a train station use the power. "A Netherlands train station is using a revolving door to produce electricity. The Natuurcafe La Port in the train station expects the coming and going of patrons to provide 4,600 kWh {guesstimate} a year." (EcoGeek; Dec. 10, 2008)
  

Weight Reset

• Lamp Lit by Gravity Wins Greener Gadget Award - A Virginia Tech student has created a floor LED lamp that is powered by gravity, using a weight slide similar to the concept of a grandfather clock. The lamp was originally calcualted to put out the equivalent of a 40-Watt bulb, and lasts four hours per cycle; and the mechanism was expected to last 200 years; however, these calculations were in error. (PESN; Feb. 18, 2008)
  

Child's-Play Harnessing

• BYU and Empower Playgrounds install electricity-generating merry-go-round in Ghana - Charles Harrell and five technology students recently traveled to Ghana where they worked alongside Ghanaian colleagues to build and install the power-generating merry-go-round, as part of a senior Capstone project sponsored by Empower Playgrounds, Inc. (Video) (BYU News; June 11, 2008)
  

• Clinton Global Initiative Gets US$2 Billion in Pledges to Fight World Woes - US First Lady, Laura Bush, announced the first commitment: US$10 million from the US government to kick-start a US$60 million public/private project to build children's merry-go-rounds in Africa, which pump clean drinking water into a storage tank. (Reuters; Sept. 21, 2006)
  

• Fueling it with fun - It’s time to power up your kids because now there’s a way to put all their hyperactivity to good use. Click the link to see a playground that's just waiting to turn children's energy into electricity. (Discovery.ca; March 31, 2005)
  

Misc.

• Self-Powered Light Switch Has No Wires - You flip the switch made by Enocean, a tiny generator creates a tiny charge. There is enough energy in operations or actions like this to transmit wireless signals over a distance of up to 300 meters. (EcoGeek; Oct. 1, 2008)
• Directory:Dickson's Human Kinetic Energy Electrical Generator

• Human Power Explored - Examination of the various ways human power is converted to electricity.

Patents

• Hundreds of Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) patents - Land Rowers, Boat Rowers, Land, Rail, Water, Water Walkers, Drive Systems, Flying, Underwater.

Research & Development

• As America Implodes, The Bike Industry Booms - The nation may be wracked by collapsing banks, foreclosed houses and a tanking economy, but there's no sign anything's amiss here at Interbike, the bike industry's annual trade show. In fact, it's party time as a perfect storm of eco-conscious consumerism, health-conscious lifestyles and wallet-sapping gas prices conspires to get people out of cars and onto bikes -- especially electric ones. ('Wired; Sept. 26, 2008)
  

• Biking for Bread: Students Build Pedal-Powered Grain Crusher - Rowan University, and several students have developed a pedal-powered grain crusher. Their aim in building the simple add-on was to create an effective device for people in developing countries to use to process a variety of grains on the cheap. (TreeHugger; March 13, 2008)
  

• Knee Brace Harnesses Human Regenerative Braking - A team of engineers has developed a modified knee brace that captures energy that would otherwise have been lost while the wearer walks. The generator produces about five watts--enough to power 10 cell phones simultaneously. (MIT Technology Review; Feb. 8, 2008)
  

• Swedes to use body heat to warm offices - A Swedish company plans to harness the body heat generated by thousands of commuters scrambling to catch their trains at Stockholm's main railway station and use it for heating a nearby office building. (Reuters; Jan. 10, 2008)

• Harnessing Human Kinetic Energy - The battery-size product, the M2E, harnesses kinetic energy, or normal physical movement, to generate power. Clipped onto a belt or carried in a knapsack, the entire generator is contained within a regular battery casing. (MIT Technology Review; Nov. 29, 2007)
  

• Design for the other 90% - Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them.
  

• "Crowd Farm" to Collect Energy? - A couple of MIT students would like to harness the mechanical power of large groups of people. A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath a thoroughfare. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power. (MIT News; July 25, 2007) (See Slashdot discussion)
  

• Body Movement Generates Electricity in Miniature Device - A new class of devices aims to convert energy created from body movement, the stretching of muscles or the flow of water to power future nanoscale components. (Fox News; Apr. 14, 2006)
  

• Fuel cell that runs on blood - A Japanese research team at Tohoku University has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs. (Gulf Times; May 14, 2005)

Humor

• Featured: Biofuels >
  NatGeo Bus Powered by Passengers - The bussing authority in Atlanta in conjunction with NatGeo, a global biofuel research group, has been experimenting with a new approach to powering their bus fleet with the passengers that board the bus. Passengers enter through the jaws and exit through the tail pipe. (Free Energy News; April 1, 2009)
  

• Fuel Efficiency
  Extraordinary Loads on Ordinary Bikes - A collection of 20 images from around the planet, primarily in the developing world, where amazing feats of stacking and balance are achieved, and powered by human locomotion and ingenuity. (TreeHugger; March 30, 2009)
  

• 10 Weird Forms of Human Transportation - Having fun using arms, legs and others to get around. Fred Flintstone would be proud! (TreeHugger; Jan. 26. 2009)
  

• Cart Bike - A hack job if you can't purchase a Christiana Bike trailer.

• Lawnmower bikes - More here at Treehugger.

• Asian Child Mimics Hydro Plant - Energy savant child, Kazuo Hydrohuko, has discovered how to harness the power of municipal water fountains. The method doubles as an effective enema. (Josu Kideng; April 1, 2008)
  

• Manual Windshield Wiper Conversion and Repair - If you don't want the one in the link, get the one in the picture.
  

• The Patented Boonsburg Egg - Simple double disk design used to manipulate and move very heavy objects. Simple design humorously claimed to be identical to Ancient Egyptian "Sun Disk" and similar circles seen at Stonehenge and Coral Castle.
  

Comments

See Discussion page

Resources

• Thermal Efficiency of a Human Being (August 26, 2008)
• Carectomy - Bikes - Eight-Ways-to-Overcome-Excuses-and-Start-Cycling.
• International Human Powered Vehicle Association
• Pop-Sci Core77 Challenge - Human Powered
• Human Power - A visual directory of human power websites. (EnergyPlanet.info)
• Alternative Energy Pedal Power - News and Information about Pedal Power Transportation, Tools and Technologies.
• List of Human Powered Vehicle Sites
• Unusual Human Powered Vehicles -"outside-the-box" thinking.
• People Powered Machines - Commercially available yard-care products.

See also

• Directory:Bio-Energetics
• Directory:Strike-Heel Generation
• Directory:Piezoelectric

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