http://www.boston.com/news/globe/he...ade_for_walking____and_generating_energy_too/
For most people, the word farm conjures up images of dairy cows out to pasture or grains blowing in a breeze. But to two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students, the term could apply just as well to the herds of people trudging through South Station or flooding the gates at Fenway Park.
The force of those feet striking the floor generates energy that -- theoretically, at least -- could be harvested and converted into electricity. What is a farm, after all, but a place to collect the resources people need -- milk, wheat or even power?
Enter the Crowd Farm, the proposal by architecture students James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk to generate electricity by capturing the energy people create in such simple motions as walking, running or jumping. They envision a future city in which the crowds streaming through subway stations, sporting venues, and even tourist destinations produce energy for harvest.
The broad concept, called "energy harvesting," has been in development for at least 10 years, driven initially by the military's need for a lightweight, portable means of recharging communication devices and other electrical gear. On a smaller scale many urban bikers, for example, pedal their way to a well-lit ride with bicycle-powered headlights. An electricity-generating backpack powers such devices as cellphones and MP3 players. A design firm in the United Kingdom is even testing a floor that generates electricity from the motion of a pedestrian's heel strike. If implemented at a busy train depot like Victoria station, commuters' feet could generate enough electricity to power 6,500 LED lights.
The MIT students' idea of capturing the energy of crowded public places recently placed first in an international sustainable construction competition, and marks just one approach in a growing movement to develop new sources of renewable energy from unexpected places.
Inspired by the crowds at last year's Italian World Cup match, the students hope that people will one day become more aware of the energy potential of public gatherings and everyday activities.
"Our particular interest is in the unthinking expenditure of walking around," Graham said.
The human body works quite well as its own energy-conversion machine, transforming the energy in the foods we eat into the mechanical energy that moves our muscles, allowing us to run marathons, talk on the phone or lift another slice of pizza into our mouths. Today, most of that energy of motion, or kinetic energy, is lost to our environment without anything useful being done with it.
What Graham, Jusczyk, and others propose is to thwart this energy drain by capturing it through a variety of devices that convert the mechanical energy of motion into electricity.
Their would-be conversion of a public space like a train station into an energy farm would require larger-scale technologies still being worked out in labs at MIT and around the world. Their proposal, presented in April at the Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction in Shanghai, would require the installation of pressure-sensitive bricks below the main floor. The bricks would sink slightly under the weight of the people walking above them, and the motion of the bricks sliding against one another would generate power, the students say.
While the technology for such an installation hasn't been worked out, J. Meejin Yoon, associate professor of architecture and the students' adviser said it could work according to the principle of a type of generator called a dynamo.
"The weight of a person's step would induce pressure, and when that pressure is relieved, it would spin the dynamo, a mini-generator that converts kinetic or mechanical energy to electric energy," she said.
And take note couch potatoes: Even the mere act of sitting down can accomplish something. The two students have developed a prototype stool that lights up when someone puts pressure on the seat.
For most people, the word farm conjures up images of dairy cows out to pasture or grains blowing in a breeze. But to two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students, the term could apply just as well to the herds of people trudging through South Station or flooding the gates at Fenway Park.
The force of those feet striking the floor generates energy that -- theoretically, at least -- could be harvested and converted into electricity. What is a farm, after all, but a place to collect the resources people need -- milk, wheat or even power?
Enter the Crowd Farm, the proposal by architecture students James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk to generate electricity by capturing the energy people create in such simple motions as walking, running or jumping. They envision a future city in which the crowds streaming through subway stations, sporting venues, and even tourist destinations produce energy for harvest.
The broad concept, called "energy harvesting," has been in development for at least 10 years, driven initially by the military's need for a lightweight, portable means of recharging communication devices and other electrical gear. On a smaller scale many urban bikers, for example, pedal their way to a well-lit ride with bicycle-powered headlights. An electricity-generating backpack powers such devices as cellphones and MP3 players. A design firm in the United Kingdom is even testing a floor that generates electricity from the motion of a pedestrian's heel strike. If implemented at a busy train depot like Victoria station, commuters' feet could generate enough electricity to power 6,500 LED lights.
The MIT students' idea of capturing the energy of crowded public places recently placed first in an international sustainable construction competition, and marks just one approach in a growing movement to develop new sources of renewable energy from unexpected places.
Inspired by the crowds at last year's Italian World Cup match, the students hope that people will one day become more aware of the energy potential of public gatherings and everyday activities.
"Our particular interest is in the unthinking expenditure of walking around," Graham said.
The human body works quite well as its own energy-conversion machine, transforming the energy in the foods we eat into the mechanical energy that moves our muscles, allowing us to run marathons, talk on the phone or lift another slice of pizza into our mouths. Today, most of that energy of motion, or kinetic energy, is lost to our environment without anything useful being done with it.
What Graham, Jusczyk, and others propose is to thwart this energy drain by capturing it through a variety of devices that convert the mechanical energy of motion into electricity.
Their would-be conversion of a public space like a train station into an energy farm would require larger-scale technologies still being worked out in labs at MIT and around the world. Their proposal, presented in April at the Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction in Shanghai, would require the installation of pressure-sensitive bricks below the main floor. The bricks would sink slightly under the weight of the people walking above them, and the motion of the bricks sliding against one another would generate power, the students say.
While the technology for such an installation hasn't been worked out, J. Meejin Yoon, associate professor of architecture and the students' adviser said it could work according to the principle of a type of generator called a dynamo.
"The weight of a person's step would induce pressure, and when that pressure is relieved, it would spin the dynamo, a mini-generator that converts kinetic or mechanical energy to electric energy," she said.
And take note couch potatoes: Even the mere act of sitting down can accomplish something. The two students have developed a prototype stool that lights up when someone puts pressure on the seat.
