At long last our dreams are coming true. Now thanks to Silverback, we can charge our gadgets while we ride around town on our favorite two-wheeled mode of transportation. The Starke 1 and Starke 2 bicycles each have a USB gadget port that is connected to a hub on the wheel that charges your gadgets while you pedal. But even when you don’t have a gadget plugged in, don’t fret, the energy won’t go to waste — it is fed into your bike’s lights, making replacement batteries a thing of the past.
An electrical device which directly converts the light energy into electricity through the photovoltaic effect is known as a solar cell or photovoltaic cell. Assemblies of cells known as solar panels are used for making solar modules which capture the solar energy from the sunlight and then generate the solar power. This is an example of solar energy.
Engineers at UCLA have developed technology that allows energy gobbling gadgets like smartphones and laptops to convert sunlight, ambient light, and their own backlight into energy. Equipping LCD-enhanced devices with so-called polarizing organic photovoltaics will recoup battery loads of lost power, and enable smartphone users to scour Yelp, scan Twitter, and update their Facebook page without fear of draining the charge before a real communication crisis arises.
There’s nothing worse than losing the charge on your iPhone at the company picnic. But fear not, you won’t be stranded Twitter-less next to the potato salad if UCLA’s new energy recycling LCD technology ever makes it to market. According to its inventors, the traditional LCD polarization process loses as much as 75 percent of light energy — something that eats around 80 to 90 percent of the device’s power.
For campers to go green can be a challenge especially for those who have never done it earlier. However it is still possible to go green while camping. Here are 10 green camping gadgets for eco friendly camps.
Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has manufactured a tablet PC which costs Rs. 3000 and is completely Made in India in BEL’s plant in Bangalore. The amazing thing about this tablet is, it was designed, manufactured and 2000 sample tablets were shipped in just 4.5 months.
BEL’s tablet runs Android 2.2 and is solar powered for the power back up. The tablet will send the data back to the central server relying on the solar powered battery. Other specifications are not known but this tablet with the leather pouch, keyboard connected with a cable seems like a practical approach for low cost computing. Asus Transformer has a similar but much sexier approach a tablet.
We all need energy to fuel our technology-dependent lives, and there is nothing much better than those few watts that are generated via renewable sources. While renewable energy generation largely depends on solar and wind generators, there is no dearth of systems that make energy generation as easy as playing. Designers have figured out many ways to convert your playtime or your kid’s playtime into energy. Here is a list of 10 such products that make renewable energy generation as easy as playing:
Clubbers, joggers and hikers, watch out for this: Gotwind’s Dance Charger that uses human movement to charge mobile phones. Trialed at this year’s Glastonbury music festival, and sponsored by Orange, this clever gadget can be strapped to your arm while you dance the day and night away, and is plugged directly into your phone when it needs charging.
The Plantbook is a notebook concept that takes a leaf out of the life of a bamboo plant. What I mean is that the battery charging system is inspired by the water-soaking abilities of the bamboo!
Have you had the courage to look at your electricity bill yet this summer? Chances are it ain’t pretty since we often end up using a ton of electricity trying to keep cool. But don’t sweat it – nowadays there are a host of smart electronics specially designed to keep temperatures down without driving your energy usage up. Read on to see our picks for 5 green gadgets to beat the summer heat.
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