Ticket machines powered by foot traffic

Started by TehBorken, Oct 19 06 10:37

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TehBorken

What a great idea.
[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"] [h3]Tokyo ticket machines powered by foot traffic
[/h3] A Tokyo rail company has put footstep-powered generators under its ticket-vending machines; the tread of passengers generates electricity to power the machines. I've always loved the idea of little piezo generators that capture our ambient kinetic energy as we move through the world.

[blockquote] JR East's new experiment consists of energy-generators under ticket wickets, a milliwatt-tracking counter, and 700,000 daily commuters. For the next two months, the railway company will be using using the vibrations of human footsteps at Tokyo Station to generate up to 100 milliwatts per second per person that walks through. The idea is to be able to generate enough electricity to power the wickets themselves and their display panels regularly. [br clear="all"] [/blockquote]  [a href="http://tokyomango.blogspot.com/2006/10/commuter-generated-electricity.html"]Link[/a]  
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.

Russ

 Thats a really good idea. Piezoelectrics with another application among many others. Sure they are expensive but they seem to last a long time.

  Where do you find all these news articles? Are you on a mailing list?
Mercy to the Guilty is Torture to the Victims

TehBorken

 Russ wrote:  [div style="font-style: italic;"]Where do you find all these news articles? Are you on a mailing list?[/div]
 No, I just screw around on the web a lot and know where to look.
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.