Backpack Generates 40 Watts Just By Walking

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I spotted this power generating backpack at Gizmodo today and thought you guys might dig on it too. The military and students are the first people that come to mind while watching this.
 
Besides generating power, wouldn't this design also alleviate pressure on the spine?
 
Or would it add more? It's about as big as a 'roller backpack,' and those were heavy! (compared to normal backpacks).
 
Now maybe we can have people walking around with their Dreamcast and keyboard and Typing of the Dead in case of a zombie breakout. This is progress! ^^
 
Good stuff! I like it but, he might have mentioned the capacity of the backpack and how much power is actually generated.
 
Well, the marine running in the background has a 44-watt caption. I can't see going much above that, unless maybe it is empty and generates more when it's full. That takes a heavier toll on the wearer, obviously, so it's only a short-term solution.

40-watt backpack, WiMax and the MIT-demo'd Minority Report "6th Sense" projector on steroids... Mmm! I like where this is going!
 
dagas said:
Now maybe we can have people walking around with their Dreamcast and keyboard and Typing of the Dead in case of a zombie breakout. This is progress! ^^
Click to expand...
LMAO. I still have the PC version of that game. I still can't understand why they chose to make the characters do that. It was so asinine to have the in-game characters actually run around with a keyboard, but atleast it was worth a few laughs.
 
im going to guess 40w is just its discharge rate, 40w real time seems a bit optimistic from a kinetic energy recovery system.
 
I don't know the power generating mechanism on this thing but if it's just a generator with some springs then it might be more strenuous to the wearer.
Hopefully this thing works more like the shocks in a car and less like a bungee cord.
I find a loosely packed backpack more strenuous to run around with than one that's tightly packed and strapped to my back. When I was in college I would lug around like 50lb of books+laptop+notebooks in my backpack (cause the dorm is on the other side of the campus...). When I run late I would have to tighten all the straps down and then run, else the backpack feels twice as heavy flopping around.
 
Something like this would be interesting, but I see a number of issues.

A.) Takes up WAY to much weight right now
B.) Takes up WAY to much room on the pack

Really, with what i've allready said the device is useless. The fact that the pack looks horribly designed doesn't help either. They need to contract the pack design out to Dana Gleason (Inventor of the first good internal frame pack 30+ years ago, and now running Mystery Ranch which is putting out Hybrid Frame packs which are amazing). I don't care if the pack was a jet-pack - If it isn't comfortable and doesn't take other real-world issues into consideration - It sucks. Nail the pack design down first, then build your power-generating features on top of that. Not the other way around.
 
_G_ said:
im going to guess 40w is just its discharge rate, 40w real time seems a bit optimistic from a kinetic energy recovery system.
Click to expand...

Why? 40Watts is only ~34Calories/hr. That's only a couple percent of the calories being burned by running at that pace.
 
I can see some good use out of this. A long range hiker could plug in a rechargeable electric lantern and his cellphone and maybe an AM/FM radio and keep it alive while hiking.

Long gone are the days of roughing it, but why needlessly risk yourself?
 
cyclone3d said:
You are assuming 100% efficiency.
Click to expand...

How do you go from a couple percent recovery to 100% recovery?

The total burned energy is around 1300-1400 calories/hour when running at the pace in the video, and that doesn't include extra energy to carry the pack.

40W recovery on a 1.5 - 1.6KW effort isn't all that much.
 
It said 8 watts while the guy was walking more normally. So just replace the top/back cover of the standard backpack with a 5lb? 12" x 12" solar panel @ around 10 watts. Don't even have to walk. It works while you squat in a fox hole dishing out anger at your enemies. It doesn't work at night, but you're only marching 12 hours a day anyways? Or bring a regular laptop battery with you, and when you get back to camp plug it into your real solar panel. If you really want 8 watts anytime, anywhere, bring a hand crank generator
 
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