Japanese Company Develops Electricity-Generating Shoes

October 16th, 2008 by Ariel Schwartz

Japanese telecommunications company NTT claims that it is developing shoes that generate electricity upon movement. The shoes generate 1.2 watts of electricity— enough to power an iPod forever if the wearer doesn’t stop walking.

Unfortunately, the shoes are not capable of storing energy, but they are certainly good for juicing up gadgets on the go. NTT ultimately hopes to improve the shoes’ capacity to 3 watts.

Unlike M2E’s recently announced kinetic energy charger, NTT’s shoes are powered by small turbines. Each shoe has a small generator attached to the water-filled sole, which spins a small turbine and generate power each time the wearer takes a step.

NTT plans to release its product as early as 2010— hopefully the shoes will look a little more appealing by then.

Photo credit: PhysOrg

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Tags: energy-generating shoe, Japan, japanese, kinetic energy, ntt

About the Author

Ariel Schwartz was formerly the editor of CleanTechnica and is a senior editor at Co.Exist. She has contributed to SF Weekly, Popular Science, Inhabitat, Greenbiz, NBC Bay Area, GOOD Magazine, and more. A graduate of Vassar College, she has previously worked in publishing, organic farming, documentary film, and newspaper journalism. Her interests include permaculture, hiking, skiing, music, relocalization, and cob (the building material). She currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

azkhad

how much does this technology cost? This would be a good research topic!
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Arabian engineer

I think if we store the power in a battery we can stop walking and use it whenever we want .
Arabian engineer

I think if we store the power in a battery we can stop walking and use it whenever we want .
Nick

NOOO! I thought this up years ago!
Nick

NOOO! I thought this up years ago!
http://writertotheworld.com Writer to the World

I don’t think I’ll wear them in the rain.

Seriously though, this is just the first one, so there’s reason to believe the electronics will get so small they’ll be unnoticeable.

If they can’t store electricity, my guess is they won’t be well received in the market. People will probably not want to wire their iPods to their shoes. Just a guess.
http://writertotheworld.com Writer to the World

I don’t think I’ll wear them in the rain.

Seriously though, this is just the first one, so there’s reason to believe the electronics will get so small they’ll be unnoticeable.

If they can’t store electricity, my guess is they won’t be well received in the market. People will probably not want to wire their iPods to their shoes. Just a guess.
http://www.letsworkgreen.com GreenIT

I’d wear that, looks like a good conversation starter. 3 watts would be pretty great, esp if paired with an mp3 player that had no battery – if you stop running the musics stops, that’s some motivation.
http://www.letsworkgreen.com GreenIT

I’d wear that, looks like a good conversation starter. 3 watts would be pretty great, esp if paired with an mp3 player that had no battery – if you stop running the musics stops, that’s some motivation.