Insole generator

The modern city dweller today almost inconceivable without a smartphone. For many of us it has become not something that would be an assistant, and almost a part of the body. Forgetting somewhere his cell phone, many feel uncomfortable, lack of something important. What can we say about a situation where we are leaving to another country or city - the smartphone becomes for us a kind of savior and conductor. With it, we are guided in an unfamiliar city, he gives us in touch with family and friends, and with it the kind of internal support. And it becomes very unpleasant when the icon appears near the discharge of the battery and to the hotel you get a few more hours.

And the right to even when you are not in isolation from civilization. Imagine yourself in the mountains or deep in the woods with an almost "dead" navigator, for example, a spare battery discharged. Solar battery? Well as rain or snow comes, and everything was shrouded in clouds?

In general, travelers today are very dependent on gadgets. Because in addition to smartphones, we are often with a more and tablets. So the dead battery not only deprives us of navigation, but also entertainment in the form of music, movies, books. Whether it the good old days with compass Andrianov, card-accordion and a small volume of the Strugatsky with battered tab. But there is hope that soon we will get a very interesting device that will allow us to charge your gadgets with each step. The idea is very simple - insole generator.

In 2013, at KIckstarter successfully completed campaign to raise funds for the production of insoles using kinetic energy when walking for generating electricity. This idea came to mind Hannah Alexander, who founded a startup SolePower . Hannah, like all of us, it was obvious that technology akkumulyatorostroeniya deadlocked and did not keep up with the growth of energy consumption gadgets. Thus was born the idea to create the insole generator, called EnSole.

According to the author of the invention, one hour walk with the insole allows you to develop enough energy for 2, 5 hours of talk time on the mobile phone. Thus, unlike other types of portable generators insole does not depend on the availability of the sun, precipitation, time of day, etc. You do not need to turn the handle dynamo, just go.





What is the working principle of the insole? Inside there is some mechanism, when you step on the insole, on the mechanism under pressure. It transforms a linear movement into rotation the small rotor, which drives the small generator. That, in turn recharges the external battery securing the legs on the rise. And at any time, it can be used to power your gadgets.

Endurance insoles will be about 100 million steps. To fully charge the iPhone enough to go from 4 to 8 km.





Sounds pretty cumbersome, "the mechanism of the rotor and the generator as a lord." However, Hannah has experience as an intern at NASA and SpaceX, as well as the Laboratory planetary robotics (Planetary Robotics Lab). It has developed a robot that can produce energy for use on planets with windy atmosphere. Partner Hannah, Matthew Stanton also an engineer, who worked previously at the shipyard that builds nuclear submarines. So there is good reason to hope that their insoles generators really be effective.

Hope for the success of the company inspires and what SolePower reached an agreement with one of the structures in the US Army for testing their inventions. Modern soldiers as civilians not passed fate depending on the gadgets. A military electronics had not particularly compact and easily, so the military has had to drag myself to a few kilograms of batteries for night vision devices, radios, tactical computers etc. And in walking they lack definitely not, so insoles generators for the military can be an excellent way to relieve a little worn goods.

It remains to be looking forward to the start of sales, shipping the first batch of investors with Kickstarter has been scheduled for this month. It will be interesting to read the reviews of the first users.

Source: geektimes.ru/company/airbnb/blog/242741/