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Kinetic Mp3 Player

Movement of the user will slowly charge a battery in an mp3 player
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An mp3 player (would probably have to be solid-state storage for power concerns) that has a kinetic battery charger built in. As the user walks the inertial energy is transfered to a generator and then to a storage device. While the power requirements would probably make it difficult for this to completely power the device, It could act as a way to improve the play time on a single charge of the original battery.
photojunkie, Jan 20 2005

Solar powered MP3 player http://www.treehugg...solar_powered_m.php
Solar powered MP3 player (one of many) [csea, Jul 07 2007]

Shakable MP3 Player http://www.nytimes....7dcf7ef3396&ei=5070
Shake the MP3 Player to change tracks [csea, Jul 07 2007]

Human Powered MP3 Player Research http://campus.io.tu...f97/doc/kuipers.pdf
Cranking seems best [csea, Jul 07 2007]


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Annotation:







       They use kinetic capture mechanisms in watches all the time, so it should not be that heavy...
photojunkie, Jan 20 2005
  

       True, but as photojunkie says, this would extend battery life rather than replace the battery.
david_scothern, Jan 20 2005
  

       Or in the heels of your shoes. Or piezoelectric blah blah blah . . . .
contracts, Jan 20 2005
  

       I was thinking of exactly the same thing yesterday, in work I have my mp3 player on a cord round my neck and I noticed it was swinging when I was walking round the warehouse. I thought it would be so good if this thing had a kinetic charger in it then it could be charging the battery whilst I'm walking, and with it being MP3 it doesn't use much more electric than a digital watch does, a solar powered MP3 player would probably also work fine.
darrenforster99, Jul 07 2007
  

       That Sandisk "Shaker" isn't shake-powered. It has a battery in it--the shaking controls the song mix.
baconbrain, Jul 07 2007
  

       [baconbrain],   

       Ah! Right your are. I should have read a bit more:   

       "After all, the idea of shaking something to mix up the contents — in this case a music playlist — is something even a baby can understand."   

       Link title corrected. Also came across a study that seems to say that shaking isn't an ideal power source for an MP3 player; they favor cranking. [link]
csea, Jul 07 2007
  

       Should be quite bakeable, especially for flash-ram units as they use very little power. Hard-drives are a bit more power hungry.
wagster, Jul 07 2007
  


 

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