Vibration harvesters designed to replace AA, AAA batteries

[Magnumpy]

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4204638/Vibration-Barvesters-Batteries

To illustrate the application of vibration-powered electricity generators the example is given of installing them in a remote control for a television or set-top box, where it is possible to use the remote after shaking it to generate power.

...

The units are only suitable for equipment with low duty cycles, such as remote controls and provide about 100-mW of power, while remote controls typically consume between 40-mW and 100-mW when in use, the report said.

Brother Industries plans to exhibit the AA and AAA energy harvesters at the Techno-Frontier exhibition in Japan July 21 to 23 showing it running a TV remote control, a remote control for lighting and a LED flashlight, the report said.

interesting, could replace a keychain light or emergency light. hopefully it works well!

 

[Beacon of Light]

Didn't read the article, but hope it is more than just a version of the shake light type of charging.

 

[tolkaze]

I use alky's in my remote, and shaking it always makes it work better, so does pushing the buttons really hard.

so maybe they should have little generators in the remotes that harvest energy by pushing the buttons in?

 

[Lynx_Arc]

If they don't make a version that is in a AA/AAA package where you can just use them to replace batteries I don't see these catching on with perhaps the exception of WII remotes

 

[abhi555]

what about batteries for vibrator (just kidding) :shakehead

 

[Point Source]

what about batteries for vibrator (just kidding) :shakehead

I believe you may have just solved the perpetual motion riddle... :naughty:

 

[Nil Einne]

If they don't make a version that is in a AA/AAA package where you can just use them to replace batteries I don't see these catching on with perhaps the exception of WII remotes

I may be confused but isn't that exactly what's being described in the post and in the linked article?

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I may be confused but isn't that exactly what's being described in the post and in the linked article?

Yup, that is what is being described but you and I know that a lot of this stuff never ends up in product as advertised or at all. I would guess there is a better chance for it to end up in specifically designed proprietary modules than AA/AAA cells.

 

[Magnumpy]

you may be thinking a few steps ahead of where this product is (and I'm guilty of this as well by posting the thread in the first place). first they need to launch it, see if they have success with it in Japan, then decide if they want to export it, then like you say we might not even see this specific product in it's present form. I'm more thinking possibilities; battery research and development is an area of heavy investment currently! any advance however far fetched is exciting

 

[Lynx_Arc]

you may be thinking a few steps ahead of where this product is (and I'm guilty of this as well by posting the thread in the first place). first they need to launch it, see if they have success with it in Japan, then decide if they want to export it, then like you say we might not even see this specific product in it's present form. I'm more thinking possibilities; battery research and development is an area of heavy investment currently! any advance however far fetched is exciting

It is interesting, to be honest putting them in remotes is kind of silly but putting them in something that you would wear on you would be more useful, imagine a phone or ipod that would charge itself as you walked and drove around some even increasing run time by 20% would make people interested but putting saving having to replace a few AA/AAA batteries in remotes every 5 years (and end up spending probably more for "shake batteries" is not very useful IMO.

 

[guiri]

Sweet! This is even better than the batteries you have to pee in to make'em work.

I like it! I'm a bit of a tree hugger btw

 

[Paul_in_Maryland]

what about batteries for vibrator (just kidding) :shakehead

Real women don't need batteries. They prefer a reliable performer like the AC-driven Hitachi.

 

[guiri]

Where I come from, only HILTI will do...

 

[shadowjk]

The reason why it's only seen in wristwatches and remotes is probably that the energy generated is so minimal it only has a chance to make a difference in a watch or remote that has extremely low energy consumption..

 

[guiri]

According to the article, they also made some more powerful units although I'm sure they're much more expensive