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Sunday, Feb 10, 2008
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Charge batteries by going for a walk or jog!

Anand Parthasarathy

Canadian researchers moot knee-mounted charger that can generate up to 13 watts

— Photo: Simon Fraser University

BIONIC POWER: Professor Max Donelan watches a volunteer generate power through the knee-mounted device.

Bangalore: When psychologists exhorted people to “harness the power within you,” they never meant it quite so literally.

The latest edition of the U.S. journal Science carries a paper by researchers at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, which moots a knee-mounted system that can generate electric power from the natural motion of walking.

Like a knee brace

Called the Biochemical Energy Harvester, the device looks like an orthopaedic knee brace. It ‘harvests’ energy as the walker’s muscles work to slow the movement of the leg forward.

Developed at the Locomotion Lab of Simon Fraser University by a team led by Max Donelan, the ‘bionic battery’ device, if worn on both legs, is said to be able to generate 5 watts of energy quite easily — 13 watts if the wearer jogs.

A minute counts

A minute’s walking can generate enough energy to run a mobile phone for 30 minutes, say the researchers. Professor Donelan says the device would be useful to anyone who runs out of power for the multiple devices one carries these days.

The team hopes to have working prototypes made within 18 months by a spin-off company they have started called Bionic Power Inc.

The principle is similar to the dynamo sets that used to be popular with cyclists — where a small wheel was set spinning by the moving cycle rim to generate enough power to light the head lamp.

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