Now This Is Mobile Technology! part 21

Posted by: Peter Murphy on Aug 26 2008

Funny for me to think that this series of posts started off with a very similair idea, clothing that turned the kinetic energy of your personal movement into power that could be transferred to a device. The comparison I used was an automatic watch. A mechanical device that is self powered through the movement of the wearer, and the device I’m featuring today, is conceptually the same. You carry it around, and it charges itself via your movement. Now I know everyone’s thinking I’m having some seventies hippy flashback, and going all green. In essence, it’s like wearing a pedometer, it measures your steps with the equivalent of an accelerometer, why not use the same tech to create power. Well it seems someone is finally catching on to these combined technologies…

M2E Power

(translate M2E to motion to energy)  have come up with a unit that essentially, takes advantage of your physical movement to create electricity, and store a charge that you can use to power/recharge a mobile device. The unit is great it can be charged on mains power, but it’s swansong is that you can carry it around, and it will convert your movement to power.

M2E Power, a company formed last year to charge electronic gadgets with human motion, has reported back that its system actually works.

Next year it expects to release a charger that can harvest enough motion from walking to replenish cell phones or other small gadgets, like GPS devices.

It says that six hours of cumulative motion can add 30 to 60 minutes of talk time to a cell phone

The device simply has a USB connection so it should be compatible with most devices that connect to a computer. I like this one, I spend a lot of time on my feet and this would buy me some extra device time, and let me leave that spare battery at home!

Via CNet News

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