The unit contains a piece of muscle. One end is anchored, and the other attached to a crank, connected to a generator. The muscle is electrically stimulated to repeatedly contract, thus turning the generator. The unit is plumbed into the users arterial/veinous system by self-sealing (in case of accident) valves, which regulate the blood supply to the muscle depending on demand. During periods of heavy use, energy rich foods (Mars bars, Kendal Mint Cake, etc) must be eaten to maintain blood sugar level.
-- Mickey the Fish, Jul 07 2000

reensure. You should post your idea seperately (I suggest "Two (billion) hearts, beating as one"). While you completely failed to show that you got what Mickey seemed to be aiming at in your annotation (which, if I'm not mistaken, was conversion of metaoblized energy into electicity via bioware), you did come up with a truely wonderful (and halbaked!) concept for aiding those of us who show too little respect to the hearts we have.
-- bear, Jul 11 2000


I was thinking of the type of muscle which enables you to pedal a bicycle.
-- Mickey the Fish, Jul 12 2000


Wow degroof, that's _really_ half-baked... You get a cookie.
-- bear, Jul 14 2000


You mean half a croissant...
-- StarChaser, Jul 14 2000


Amazing but true: muscles are surprisingly inefficient. 75 percent of the energy used by muscles turns into heat rather than useful motion. Probably would do better with the fuel-cell cells idea.
-- rmutt, Sep 01 2000


So....

At .001163 Wh/cal we get about 1000 cal to run an average cell phone for a day (1.2Wh) .... If we ass-ume 25% conversion efficency we would need about 4000 cal/day to run that phone... That is probably optomistic... But hey, I could sure use a device that siphoned off a meal or two a day... I seem to have a few extra stored for a long call or two....

The real issue would be that it would drive most people nuts... If you have ever used an electro muscular stimulator you know that it is a weird feeling that is hard to get used too....

On the other hand... It would work great for low power comunications like BlueTooth @ <50mw or for emergency calls for help...

-tdh
-- tdh, Jul 13 2001


waugs, the energy that a muscle uses to contract is chemical energy, extracted from the blood. The electrical stimulus is just a control signal.
-- wiml, Jul 14 2001


I've long thought of at least a wrist-watch being powered elctrochemically. I always went "wow" at school to think of the 200 V potential difference between head and foot. As always,it's tapping it which is necessary. I like your notion, but I'm not qualified to comment on the details of the proposal.
-- peter2, Nov 08 2001


If 75% of energy to muscle goes as heat (and some more as friction heat) and the rest generates electricity, then overwieght low income people would earn some money riding an exercise cycle linked to a dynamo in someone's house - both heating it and powering it at the same time - moving towards 100% efficiency.
-- mkirksmith, Dec 11 2001


rmutt: It hardly seems fair to declare muscles 'Inefficient' for converting so much energy into heat, nor surprising that they do so. We reductionistic C21sters think of muscles as being "Designed to let us move around", where they actually evolved to perform various supporting roles in a great many tasks necessary to the ongoing quest to procreate. I'm guessing that one such task was keeping warm. Thus shivering.
-- Mharr, May 10 2002


Dear peter2

Were did you ever hear that there is a 200V potential from head to foot, there is only a 3V potential and at a very small amperage.

Second, why not just make a thermal couple array that would resemble a mesh and put under the abdomin wall. This could be used to power an electro-muscular stimulator to exercise other muscle groups or it could be used to run a pace maker or an artificial heart Etc.
-- wbfroggie, Sep 09 2002


*Ray sticks his tongue to his toe to try and shock himself*
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 17 2002


Blood-glucose fuel cells are currently in the oven and will be baked rather soon.
-- TerranFury, Feb 05 2004


'during periods of heavy use, energy rich foods... must be eaten'

So your idea is to put this inside a person? Aside from any potential problems with its operation, two key things remain: implantation, and utilization.

Implanting a mechanical device in vascular tissue is difficult/ expensive/ potentially dangerous. Getting the produced power out of the body would either require wires (perfect opportunity for infection), or some trans-cutaneous power transmission method.
-- eahenle, Sep 04 2006


You could use it to power an artificial heart.
-- GutPunchLullabies, Sep 04 2006



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