Electricity-generating rubber chips could power cell phones, more

User Comments: 13

1. January 28, 2010 4:33 PM
   

   TomSEA, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

   Geez...who the hell thinks up this stuff??

   Reply
2. January 28, 2010 4:47 PM
   Staff
   

   Matthew, TechSpot Staff, said:

   People who are far more ambitious than myself.

   Reply
3. January 28, 2010 4:55 PM
   

   Eddie_42 said:

   TomSEA said:

   Geez...who the hell thinks up this stuff??

   Professors at Princeton.

   Pretty nifty stuff. I can see this getting used in a way to harness natural energy. Wind and waves to be particular. Semi depend on the energy it takes to move it: If its like a piece of salt-water taffy or flexible like a bed sheet.

   It would also be important to note the power capacity. a few micro volts? maybe even a whole volt?

   Reply
4. January 28, 2010 5:31 PM
   

   Timonius said:

   Human electric power plants! Hmmmmm....

   Reply
5. January 28, 2010 9:37 PM
   

   Tekkaraiden said:

   That is really kewl.

   Reply
6. January 29, 2010 7:21 AM
   

   compdata, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   I have been watching the piezoelectric material advances for years. It is getting closer and closer to being commercially viable for everyday use, and will certainly bring a lot of advances in micro electronics and robotics.

   Reply
7. January 29, 2010 7:25 AM
   

   compdata, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   Eddie_42 said:

   It would also be important to note the power capacity. a few micro volts? maybe even a whole volt?

   Power generating capacity is defined by the amount of Watts something can generate. Voltage is only half of the equation. P= V * I (where I = current in Amps).

   Wikipedia has a very good article on Piezoelectric material if you are interested:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric

   Reply
8. January 29, 2010 8:32 AM
   

   Puiu said:

   I want numbers. Can it really power a phone just by walking a few steps or do we need to jog kilometers just to talk for a minute.

   Reply
9. January 29, 2010 11:56 AM
   fwilliams said:

   lets call it called flubber

   now you can charge your electric car with peddle power

   Reply
10. January 29, 2010 12:23 PM
    TorturedChaos, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

    The tech sounds really cool. All sorts of possibilities for it, but I do have to wonder like this guy...

    Puiu said:

    I want numbers. Can it really power a phone just by walking a few steps or do we need to jog kilometers just to talk for a minute.

    I know the it says you can fit "up to 100 PZT strips can fit in a millimeter of space", so even if they don't put out a lot of power they don't take up much space. But how many would you need to say keep your cell phone charged? Or an MP3 player charged?

    Reply
11. January 29, 2010 10:28 PM
    SgtBlades said:

    fwilliams said:

    now you can charge your electric car with peddle power

    I think we might just see a modern flintstones

    Reply
12. February 6, 2010 4:03 PM
    Guest said:

    Damn! What now?! While the world is busy fighting the terrorist and the terrorism, good scientist are all busy building good stuff...but are they really good enough for us? This one invention of Princeton University Professor might put everyone in danger...not only he discover it as good as it is, he also put everything in jeopardy specially our world we live now. Oh, well F*** it all! Now, we need to be more carefull than ever...!

    Reply
13. February 7, 2010 2:19 PM
    Guest said:

    Wow. Imagine the factory that produces these things. I worked at a regular RAM factory and am still in shock at how much resources it takes to make them. Could this actually be worth the long term effects such as resource depletion, pollution (from fabrication and disposal), new kinds of cancer or psychological damage to users of this technology? There is a Tesla quote something like, "our technology has surpassed our humanity".

    Reply

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