Clever energy invention: "Wind Belt"

This story and video were linked on Slashdot. Very creative approach.

That's pretty cool.

Dang I feel pretty dumb. Why didn't I think of something like that.

third world?? what about MY house!?

Cool idea and if it can be scaled up even if just by making hundreds of small ones this may be a really useful concept in more than just 3rd world countries.

What a neat idea! Anything that can move a magnet through a coil of wire can generate power, and this is a pretty clever way to harness the movement of the wind to do it. But where in the world do you get mylar-coated taffeta?
:huh:

Integrating a LED into the casing would seem to be a good idea.

When I was at primary school the Trico windscreen wiper wiper factory was right next door, we used to get the rubber trimming from the wiper blades and run around with them stretched above our heads, they made a weird buzzing noise, I wonder if these make a similar noise?, you wouldn't want them buzzing above your house all night. For some reason the film clip wouldn't run for me so I couldn't tell if they made a noise.
Norm

you could make a few different sizes for various prevailing wind speeds, tune them to sound out those 6 notes from 'Close Encounters' lol

lol, this :rock:

I made something just like it when I was in high school....I didn't think of its potential as anywhere near this. aside from me being a bookworm, I have a tendency to "improvise" "headache machines"

site of enlightenment: photo class darkroom
Whenever we would start loading film or washing through the chemicals the professor would engage the force air ventilation system

I found that when blowing at a piece of paper weighed down on a table make a very distinct flapping sound, so I simply threaded paper strips in a salvaged rectangular container and left it in an open air duct, whenever the ventilation kicks in the room sounded like someone just dumped in a nest of bees in...being the dark means the scene gets very chaotic.....the enlargers are on one wall, the chemicals are on the other wall...theres two walkways...and 16 people at once. I admit I regret doing so, but the invention essentially saved my grade when I couldn't get a good print but has no real method of postponing the due date

I wonder if you could do better by moving the 'coil' to the center of the band to increase displacement. Probably would have a huge effect on the natural frequency though.

or make the whole band out of piezo-electric material and get rid of the coil completely

James S said:

or make the whole band out of piezo-electric material and get rid of the coil completely

Click to expand...

:twothumbs

How interesting that he was thinking about it all the way back in middle school.