Japanese Company Develops Electricity-Generating Shoes
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.
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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
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.
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.