Insole generator

The modern city dweller today is almost unthinkable without a smartphone. For many of us, it has become not so much a helper, but almost a part of the body. Forgetting somewhere in your cell phone, many feel uncomfortable, lack of something important. What can we say about the situation when we go to another city or country - the smartphone turns into a kind of savior and guide for us. With his help, we are guided in an unfamiliar city, he gives us a connection with family and friends, and with it some kind of internal support. And it becomes very unpleasant when the icon of an almost exhausted battery appears, and you need to get to the hotel a few more hours.

And it would be fine if you are not separated from civilization. Imagine yourself in the mountains or in a deep forest with an almost “dead” navigator, for example, with discharged spare batteries. Solar battery? Well, how does it rain or snow, and everything is clouded by clouds?
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In general, tourists today are very dependent on gadgets. After all, besides smartphones, we often have tablets with us. So the dead battery not only deprives us of navigation, but also entertainment in the form of music, movies, books. Is it a matter of good old times with Adrianov's compass, an accordion map and a Strugatsky volume with a tacky bookmark. But there is hope that soon we will get a very interesting device that will allow us to recharge our gadgets with each step. The idea is very simple - insole-generator.

In 2013, a campaign to raise funds for the production of insoles that use kinetic energy when walking to generate electricity was successfully completed at KIckstarter. This idea came up with Hanne Alexander, who founded the startup SolePower . Hannah, like all of us, it was obvious that battery technology was stumped and did not keep up with the increase in power consumption of gadgets. So the idea was born to create an insole-generator, which was called EnSole.

According to the author of the invention, one hour of walking with such an insole allows you to generate enough energy for 2.5 hours of talking on a mobile phone. At the same time, unlike other types of portable generators, the insole does not depend on the presence of the sun, precipitation, time of day, etc. You do not need to turn the handle of the dynamo, just go.



What is the principle of the insoles? Inside there is a certain mechanism, when you step on the insole, pressure is put on the mechanism. He transforms this linear motion into the rotation of a small rotor, which drives a small generator. That, in turn, recharges the external battery, mounted on the rise of the foot. And at any time you can use it to power your gadgets.

The life of the insoles will be about 100 million steps. To fully charge the iPhone, it is enough to go from 4 to 8 km.



It sounds rather cumbersome, "a mechanism with a rotor and a generator in the insole." However, Hannah has experience working as an intern at NASA and SpaceX, as well as at the Planetary Robotics Lab. She developed a power generating robot for use on planets with a windy atmosphere. Hannah’s partner, Matthew Stanton, was also an engineer who had previously worked at a shipyard building nuclear submarines. So there are reasonable grounds to hope that their insoles-generators will indeed be effective.

The hope for the success of the enterprise is inspired by the fact that SolePower was able to agree with one of the structures in the American army to test their invention. Modern soldiers, as well as civilians, did not pass the fate of dependence on gadgets. And military electronics never differed in particular compactness and lightness, so the military has to carry several kilograms of batteries for night vision devices, radios, tactical computers, etc. And as for walking, they definitely don’t have a shortage, so insoles-generators for the military can be an excellent way to lighten the weighted load a little.

It remains to wait for the start of sales, the shipment of the first batch to investors from Kickstarter was scheduled for this month. It will be very interesting to read reviews from the first users.