Futuristic cell phone charger

[perrymk]

Forget solar chargers, micro windmills are on the horizon.

http://www.winmemstech.com/en/news/82/

[Hill Ape]

all i can picture in my head is a bunch of hiker trash at the shelter blowing furiously on this thing to make a phone call

[perrymk]

I'm just going to put mine in front of the person that talks too much. There's one in every crowd, isn't there?

[Slo-go'en]

I really don't see this as becoming practical. To generate electricity one needs to spin a magnetic field through a coil of wire, or visa-versa and the faster, the better. These microscopic wind turbines would produce microscopic amounts of electricity and even if 100's of thousands are wired together somehow, are unlikely to produce enough power to charge a phone. I suppose it is remotely possable it can be made to work, but don't hold your breath - you'll need it to blow on the windmills

[HikerMom58]

I'm just going to put mine in front of the person that talks too much. There's one in every crowd, isn't there?

Ha Ha... this thread is fun! I'm "that person". Yeah, that would be me!

[couscous]

http://solepowertech.com/how-it-works/ - Today, SolePower insoles are a power source as mobile as the devices they charge. They generate on-the-go, renewable power that will serve as an innovative, mobile energy solution for people around the world. At SolePower, we will continue to develop products that improve the way people power and interact with portable technology.

[Franco]

I had a look at that sometime ago.What came to mind was that the smaller those windmills are the more fragile they would be.
Even putting a mesh scree in front the holes will need to be pretty small (therefore cutting wind power) to filter dirt and dust.
It would be nice to be wrong here.

[bamboo bob]

http://solepowertech.com/how-it-works/ - Today, SolePower insoles are a power source as mobile as the devices they charge. They generate on-the-go, renewable power that will serve as an innovative, mobile energy solution for people around the world. At SolePower, we will continue to develop products that improve the way people power and interact with portable technology.

Way cool! I signed up. I can't imagine it could hold up durability wise to 12 hours a day of foot pounding.