CovOps
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| Subject: Take a walk - and charge up your phone Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:31 am | |
| A knee brace which can generate electricity as you walk, creating enough power to charge mobile phones and medical devices, has been developed by scientists.
The device is inspired by technology used in hybrid cars which store the power from braking to generate electricity. So-called regenerative brakes can collect energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat when a car slows. In the same way, the knee brace uses the energy dissipated at the knee as the leg slows after a step.
In tests, volunteers generated five watts of power when they wore a brace on each leg. The researchers said it was enough to operate a portable GPS navigation unit, a robotic prosthetic joint or a heart pacemaker.
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