Microscopic piezoelectrics
July 29th, 2010 by rbanks
Sparks for Your Stride: Kinetic Energy Conversion News
“The US National Science Foundation has offered a $350,000 grant to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, who are developing microscopic piezoelectric fibers that could be woven into any garment. The research team claims that a million fibers spun into a shirt would generate enough current to power an iPod. So far the team, led by Professor Liwei Lin, has succeeded in converting energy from small finger movements using fibers attached to a glove (see a video demonstration of this in Smart Planet’s “Future of Cloth” report here). The Pentagon is also backing the project, in the hope that it will put an end to heavy battery packs for soldiers.” 
Worldchanging
