Socks That Generate Electricity From Urine

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Researchers from the University of the West of England have developed pee powered socks that can be used in case of emergency. What kind of emergency? Doesn't matter, if you are walking around in socks you peed in, that's an emergency all by itself. :eek:

Aiming to make a self-sufficient, wearable device that works anywhere without additional power, the team created a manual foot pump inspired by how fish use involuntary muscles to circulate blood around their bodies. Instead of muscle, the pump uses flexible silicone tubes, which wrap under the heels and connect to bendy MFCs near the ankles. Each step taken squeezes and releases the tubes to pump the urine around.
 
It will help power my experimental stillsuit when I head for Arrakis as a spice prospector. Handy!
 
I think I would rather have a generator that I crank than socks that I have to piss on and then walk around in.
 
It doesn't seem very useful. The amount of power it seems to generate is in the milliwatt range since it can only power an extremely low power device for a short period of time every couple of minutes (Microchip nanoWatt). It wasn't powered directly. A couple of supercapacitors and associated circuitry were used to store the generated electricity. A small hand-cranked or bicycle mounted generator is probably more useful since it can charge and/or power actual useful devices.

But a real application is hinted at in the actual paper. The same idea could be used in implantable, low power devices. Minus the urine of course.
 
Wonder how they plan to address the problem of people developing trench foot from walking around in pee socks.
 
So, lost in the desert and your cell phone just died. Just pee on your socks, plug your phone in, and run a couple of miles in random directions, looking for a signal. Boom, pee powered socks, saving lives.
 
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