Has it ever happened that your MP3 player died while in a middle of your exercise? Have you ever forgot your cellphone charger in the office or home and it was beginning to drain at exactly the time you were waiting for an important call?
There are so many different ways to charge our electronics, some more convenient than others. But what if we did not have to take anything extra with us, and could simply charge them with the clothes we were wearing. Wouldn’t that be an extremely practical solution?
Georgia Tech have developed a fabric that consists of nanogenerators, enabling power to be generated and used for small devices. They use zinc oxide nanowires on some of the fabric, to create electricity during movement. If this is used in our daily clothes, we would be able to charge our media players, cellphones, PDAs, and more while walking to work, grocery shopping, or exercising.
The project is not finalized yet; there are still some bugs that need to be resolved, such as the zinc wire coating staying on when the fabric is wet.
In the end, I wonder which fabrics will be used for this. As much as I love this innovation, I couldn’t see myself wearing a turtleneck such as Steve Jobs, just to make sure the iPhone stays powered on. I mean…there is a limit.
Via: Technabob
