Neato frito! Technology to the Rescue!
Mini windmills power wireless networks
Power can be scavenged from a gentle breeze.
Mark Peplow
Pocket-sized blades make wind power a breeze.
Tapping the power of the wind doesn't have to mean peppering the skyline with vast turbines. The inventor of a pocket-sized windmill says his tiny device could power wireless networks of sensors in remote locations.
Wireless networks have freed us from miles of cumbersome wiring needed to carry information, but the electronic 'nodes' of such networks still need power. If geologists want to place hundreds of sensors on a mountain to monitor seismic activity, for example, they either have to supply electricity using cables or hike out to each sensor every six months or so to replace batteries.
"The problem is keeping the nodes powered all the time," says Shashank Priya, an electrical engineer from the University of Texas, Arlington, adding that wind power could be the answer.
His windmill is about 10 centimetres across, and is attached to a rotating cam that flexes a series of piezoelectric crystals as it rotates. Piezoelectric materials generate a current when they are squeezed or stretched, and are commonly used to make a spark in gas lighters.
Power can be scavenged from a gentle breeze.
Mark Peplow
Pocket-sized blades make wind power a breeze.
Tapping the power of the wind doesn't have to mean peppering the skyline with vast turbines. The inventor of a pocket-sized windmill says his tiny device could power wireless networks of sensors in remote locations.
Wireless networks have freed us from miles of cumbersome wiring needed to carry information, but the electronic 'nodes' of such networks still need power. If geologists want to place hundreds of sensors on a mountain to monitor seismic activity, for example, they either have to supply electricity using cables or hike out to each sensor every six months or so to replace batteries.
"The problem is keeping the nodes powered all the time," says Shashank Priya, an electrical engineer from the University of Texas, Arlington, adding that wind power could be the answer.
His windmill is about 10 centimetres across, and is attached to a rotating cam that flexes a series of piezoelectric crystals as it rotates. Piezoelectric materials generate a current when they are squeezed or stretched, and are commonly used to make a spark in gas lighters.
posted by littledevilworks at 1:11 PM
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