The Green Optimistic

I don’t know what’s been happening lately with everybody, but it seems that more and more people are trying to charge their phones or iPhones or iPods using energy imported from human movement. Remember those movies presenting slaves hundreds of years ago spinning a huge wheel to provide the emperor with water and energy? They did not do it for fun, yet nowadays there are two recent mediatized inventions that caught my eye. Curiously enough, they are being developed by two telecom operators:

1. The Turbine powered shoe

NTT, a mobile operator from Japan, studies how the above-pictured shoe can power your mobile gadgets. It’s not an ordinary shoe, because it has small turbines attached to it, that can produce 1.2 watts of electricity to charge whatever you like.

2. Gotwind’s Dance Charger

Orange, the worldwide mobile operator, is apparently going to use this accessory by Gotwind. While you dance, it converts your arm’s movement to electricity and, again, power any small device you may have. It’s estimated that an hour of heavy movement provides two lines of battery on a Nokia N95.

All in all, these devices are interesting, but…Think about the energy you put into them? Where is it taken from? The human body yet needs to feel comfortable and not stranded by some unnecessary equipments. In other words, I doubt anyone is going to charge their phone while going to the disco, except a few isolated cases, when you’re homeless, don’t have a car, you’re 300 miles away from home and yet you have to dance in a disco or jog and charge your phone at the same time.

In fact, the name of the latter, at least, is not suited to its logic purpose and situation it will be used in. I would only see real use of such devices for hikers or other people with no immediate access to an energy source to charge their devices in need, not for fun. After all, charging your phone this way is not going to reduce global warming sensibly.