[at-l] Electric boots (a mohair suit...)

[Janel Clement <janelgrice@yahoo.com>]

Thought you all might like to see what the great
thinkers of the shoe industry have in mind for our
future...  ;)
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Trevor Baylis's Freeplay clockwork radio - which is
powered by a small hand-crank instead of batteries -
was his first foray into "personal power."  As he puts
it, "You eat your corn flakes in the morning, and they
can run your radio all day."  He tested his latest
innovation in June when he joined 50 ("much younger")
hikers in a march across the Namibian desert to raise
money for a British anti-land mine charity.  Unlike
the other trekkers, however, Baylis and a companion
were charging mobile phone batteries all the way.  And
whom would he need to call from the desert?  As it
happened, he called Sir Richard Branson, head of the
Virgin empire (Tony Blair, the head of a different
empire, couldn't come to the phone).

What? ~ The Electric Shoe Company, the startup
co-launched by Mr. Baylis, is developing various
methods for generating power from footsteps.  On the
hike, Balyis wore shoes containing quartz-like
piezoelectric materials that release electricity when
bent or compressed, similar to the electronic ignition
switches in gas stoves.  As the wearer steps, the shoe
creates between 100-150 milliwatts of power - not
enough to run a phone, but enough to send a trickle of
energy into the phone's battery.  It's clearly not
perfected yet:  The first generation product took five
days and 100 miles of hot African hiking to make a
four minute call (Baylis: "I was more focused on
staying alive than charging the battery").  An
alternate method, built into a boot worn by his
companion, Texon engineer John Grantham, uses a tiny
dynamo (also used in some self-powered bicycle
lights).  As the person walks, springs coil and uncoil
to spin the dynamo, creating about the same amount of
energy as the piezoelectric model.  Other methods
under consideration include replacing the springs with
a liquid that squirts back and forth across a motor as
the owner walks (giving new meaning to the Nike
swoosh).  According to Piers Hubbard-Miles, the
company's managing director, they hope to have their
product to market as soon as July 2001, but in
reality, he says, probably not until early 2002.  Jim
Gilbert, who helped build the dynamo prototype,
expects future versions of the technology will be
capable of generating one to three watts of power,
enough to power multiple gadgets (Hubbard-Miles: "MP3
players have very low power requirements").

So what? ~ Foot-power sounds boring (the fad for
lights in children's shoes has already come and gone),
but LEDs in shoes are hardly the same beast as mobile
phone batteries.  Funded by Texon International- the
world's largest manufacturer of footwear components
and future Intel of the shoe industry - the Electric
Shoe Company believes we will be able to operate
independently of battery chargers.  DERA, the research
branch of the British Ministry of Defense, and its US
equivalent (DARPA) are developing similar methods to
make their soldiers more independent.  Since many
mobile phone users only walk from bed to garage and
parking lot to cubicle every day, the Electric Shoe
Company says its technology will be likely first
adopted by "backpackers, hikers, and people in the
wilderness."  Epicenter would endorse legislation
requiring N'Sync, Britney Spears, and every aerobics
instructor to wear electric shoes - imagine the raw
wattage produced by a nation's worth of bench-step
aerobics classes.

by Adam L. Knapp
http://www.theelectricshoeco.com/

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