Return to the archive index

Re: wind-up wearables

Oak Davis wrote:

> Tim Gray wrote:
> ----- SNIP -----
> > I would love to cut my battery pack in 1/2 if I can find an
> > alternativecharging system... (Solar panel hats are not socially
> > acceptable yet  :-) and winding up the power system might get
> > strange looks in the resturant...
> ----- SNIP -----
> >>From: Christopher Allen <>
> >>Yes. From CMU's Metronaut page:
> >>"Metronaut could alternatively be powered by a mechanical flywheel
> >>converting kinetic energy to electrical energy."
> ----- SNIP -----
> >>On Thu, 28 May 1998  wrote:
> >>http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/vuman/www/metronaut.html
> >>On Thu, 28 May 1998  wrote:
> >>> The Metronaut, presented by CMU at ISWC'97, was a wind-up wearable
> >>> computer!

<snip>

> My point (finally) is that the wind up generator needed to provide power
> to a wearable computer would be a lot larger than the batteries it
> replaces and would require a lot of cranking. Even if the charging unit
> did not have to be attached to the wearable all the time the user would
> have to carry it around all the time because of the frequent need for a
> recharge.

<snip>

 First an apology if this response doesn't get routed properly (first
attempt).

I am not an engineer, but i wonder if using more of the body than just the
hands might not ameliorate the tedium of hand crankinging?  For example as
one walks ones arms and legs are swinging back and forth, could not some
method be developed to use this motion to charge a bateery or capacitors?

Just a thought.

--
Abraços,

B

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH)
Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

Archive created with babymail