Energy From Vibrations

JN writes "Now here's a nifty invention. What started off as a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Navy to a MIT professor has turned out to become a great mechanism that harnesses running machines' minute vibrations into energy. The possibilities are limitless. Aside from the obvious, imagine the ultimate cellphone - one that charges the battery every time it rings/vibrates, hence promising extended talktimes, and giving operators all the more reasons to get their customers to use their devices. How cool is that? Do I see 3G applications with a vibrate() call mandatory every couple minutes? "

This could be sweet.

[OwnerOfWhinyCat]

On a Harley block these could power my Microwave!

nothing new here

[kin_korn_karn]

I know plenty of women that get energy from vibrating objects.

Dildos

[Anonymous Coward]

Insert tasteless joke about Dildos here.

The following equation lists my thoughts.

[Renraku]

Since the posts thus far are mostly about cell phones regaining power by ringing.. Step 1: Vibrate. Step 2: Violate laws of thermodynamics. Step 3: ? Step 4: Profit!

Re:nothing new here

[Xzisted]

If us men scientists aren't careful...they wont have much of a use for us anymore. Imagine the self-recharging vibrator that never dies.

Obvious Application

[The_Rippa]

Perpetual Dildo

Wow!

[philovivero]

Yes! A phone that charges itself when it rings or vibrates.

And next, we can build a machine that, when slowing down from drag, uses that potential energy to cause another part of itself to move faster. Then, it would never stop. We could task it to make electricity to power... everything!

From cars that have more electricity at the end of the trip than when they started, to bicycles that coast faster when going uphill, the possibilities are... perpetual!

very funny

[joss]

> one that charges the battery every time it rings/vibrates

I sure hope you are just making a joke. If you're not being deliberately stupid, I impressed by your natural talent.

Anything that obtains energy from vibrations or sound is going to dampen those vibrations or muffle the sound [same thing really]. If phones can save energy like this, maybe you can levitate by pulling your own hair up. In fact, I recommend you try this.

Re:"Young lady, in this house we obey the laws...

[agentkhaki]

I suppose it's all in how you read it... Note the word 'extended' though. In my dictionary, 'extended' does not equate to 'infinite.'

Slashdot laziness takes an all time low - now people aren't even bothering to read the post itself. What next, just read the headline? The first word of the headline? The first letter?

Re:Well, 'vibrate'..

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe you should stop shoving the phone up your ass then?

Wasted Energy

[3DKnight]

No only if they could harness the wasted energy that sites writers use by making all the "high-tech" terms in their articles clickable to websearchs of the said terms to try and make it seem "cutting edge" internet reporting.

Re:"Young lady, in this house we obey the laws...

[nweaver]

Yeup. " Do I see 3G applications with a vibrate() call mandatory every couple minutes? "

You're lazy, all right.

cold fusion

[lesburn1]

now if I could hook up my Utah Cold Fusion Battery
I could sell back power to the power Co. every night when I plug in my c-phone.

Re:This could be sweet.

[DoctorPepper]

Shit, on a Harley block it could power ALL of our microwaves!

Well, that depends...

[metlin]

Do I see 3G applications with a vibrate() call mandatory every couple minutes?

And I thought there was just *one* of them G thingys that needed vibration.

And now its gonna be mandatory?! Every 2 mins?

ahem ;-)

Finally!

[Spackler]

This is one slashdot story I'll need to read at -1, just for the vibrator trolls

good vibrations

[poot_rootbeer]

I dunno about this -- my girlfriend seems to have no energy whatsoever left after I apply vibrations to her for 10-15 minutes straight...

BEST TROLL EVER

[Elwood P Dowd]

Please. Everyone should make basic errors in logical reasoning in their submissions, that way, we'll never talk about anything else. Slashdot will be ruined. My evil plans will come to fruition! Ah ha ha ha ha HA HA HA!

aw crap...

[aarondsouza]

I can just see the spam hitting my mailbox...

12 inch vibrator! Save the environment while you pleasure yourself!

Many applications

[Rinisari]

Those squiggly pens could be perpetual motion generators!
Pam and Tommy Lee could have powered the United States while they were together..
The San Andreas Power Plant..
The London Philharmonic Orchestral Power Plant..
Unrepaired PowerMac G4's could power themselves :-)

Re:2nd Law of Thermodynamics

[dunedan]

I thought the Second Law said something about Robots being forced to obey humans except if it would harm humans :)

Re:Conservation of energy

[Fapestniegd]

It would help keep the device charged. Because to capture the energy, the vibrations would be dampened such that the phone *wouldn't* vibrate and then you wouldn't answer it. And as everyone knows, If you don't use the phone, The battery won't run down as fast. Of course, it would cease to be useful as a phone. But that's usually what you get when you try to get something for nothing.

Re:"Young lady, in this house we obey the laws...

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

Hemos is like a lot of sci-fi fans: he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on.

That's the most concise description of many sci-fi fans I think I've ever seen. I think I'll have to file that one away for future use. :)

Endless Source of Energy

[tsetem]

Hate to reply to myself, but....

What about hooking your sister/daughter/wife up with a phone that generates electricity when she's talking. That could really answer the worlds energy needs...

At least pay for the phone calls themselves...

"Hon, time to call your mother again, the lights are getting dim."

Re:Indeed

[Torqued]

"Unless the phone happens to be one of those nifty wrist-based one, the answer is no, this won't work."

1: Momentum powered wrist cell phone
2: Porn
3: !!!!!!!!!
4: Profit! (or at least unlimited power!) :)

Re:The following equation lists my thoughts.

[doorbot.com]

Step 1: Vibrate.
Step 2: Violate laws of thermodynamics.
Step 3: ?
Step 4: Profit!

Step 3 is "Post on Slashdot."

You down with entropy? Yeah, you know me. [mchawking.com]

Re:This could be sweet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hint: Seek a female perspective.

The vibration is, most decidedly, a feature, not a bug.

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

OK. But I get to keep the drinking bird.

Re:Are you completely stupid?

[schon]

Can't believe that in Slashdot, and in the 21st century, some people still think you can get "free energy"... sigh...

Hey, you can!

Just run an extension cord over to your neighbor's house when he's sleeping :o)

Re:Indeed

[Rolo Tomasi]

Slightly OT, there are actually watch stands made specifically for these kinds of watches. You put your watch on it, and there's a motor inside that swings the whole thing from side to side. How do I know this? I saw such a contraption on eBay once. It sold for about $300. It's really one of those "WTF LOL" things.

Perpetual Motion !!!!!

[bozojoe]

They cant do THAT!

I have a patent on perpetual motion engines!!!!!!

I'm gonna sue

Already been done!

[psyconaut]

My girlfriend certianly seems to get a lot of energy whenever anything vibrates near her....can I claim patent infringement?! ;-)

-psy

Re:good vibrations

[DASHSL0T]

I dunno about this -- my girlfriend seems to have no energy whatsoever left after I apply vibrations to her for 10-15 minutes straight... That's odd, she usually tuckers out at the 8 minute mark for the rest of us.

Very innovative

[Glyndwr]

How marvellously novel. I'm sure no-one has ever found a way to absorb energy from movement and store it for later use [howstuffworks.com] before, or turn that stored energy into electricity [seikousa.com].

And on the subject of using the phone's own vibrating alert to recharge the battery: "Lisa! In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!".

Grr

[Greyfox]

Damn thermodynamics... always holding us back.

Re:Indeed

[cygnus]

1: Momentum powered wrist cell phone
2: Porn
3: !!!!!!!!!
4: Profit! (or at least unlimited power!) :)

...i hear that's the plot of The Matrix: Reloaded.

Ctrl-Alt-Del as a power source

[jcwren]

Imagine an energy scavenger like this inside a standard PC keyboard. You could power Intels hungriest processors using Windows and Ctrl-Alt-Del...

It's too easy...

[Drakonian]

In this house, we OBEY the laws of thermodynamics!

Obligatory Quote

[jpetts]

Lisa! In this house we obey the Laws of Thermodynamics!

--Homer Simpson

In related news...

[dfn5]

Scientists have learned to use Solar cells to harness the power of the light bulb. This energy, in turn, can be used to power more light bulbs of which can be harnessed by more cells.

"I don't know why we didn't see it before", stated a young lab assistant at the M.I.T center for alternative energy. "I wonder if Thomas Edison truely realized the potential in his invention."

That explains The Matrix !!

[Anonymous Coward]

That explains it !!

It's not their body heat - it's the cell phones of all those sleeping people that power The Matrix.

Now I understand.

Re:BEST TROLL EVER

[Drakonian]

Haha. I wonder what Hemos was thinking when he posted this. Either:

Wow neato! This will revolutionize the world. Our cell phones can power everything in life by just vibrating more.

or...

Oh man, this JN character is gonna get it. Let the flames commence!

or...

The inevitable vibrator jokes are too good to pass up. I must post it.

Re:This could be sweet.

[Capt. DrunkenBum]

Take the device you hint at, attach these things to it... Instant perpetuial motion machine.

Take that law of thermodynamics! :)

Re:Windmills in the ducts

[outsider007]

More importantly, let's hope for commercial windmill farms that don't kill birds.

better yet, a windmill farm that converts the birds it kills into energy.

Re:good vibrations

[poot_rootbeer]

I can understand your confusion. My suggestion, then, is to throw the vibrator away and do the job yourself next time. She'll have more energy and you won't have to go to sleep quite so frustrated.

I thought Slashdotters were supposed to EMBRACE technologies that make our lives easier...?

Haven't you ever heard of entropy?

[matt-fu]

Do I see 3G applications with a vibrate() call mandatory every couple minutes?

You do not. MC Hawking wrote an excellent article on why this wouldn't work:

Entropy, how can I explain it? I'll take it frame by frame it,
to have you all jumping, shouting saying it.
Let's just say that it's a measure of disorder,
in a system that is closed, like with a border.
It's sorta, like a, well a measurement of randomness,
proposed in 1850 by a German, but wait I digress.
"What the fuck is entropy?", I here the people still exclaiming,
it seems I gotta start the explaining.

You ever drop an egg and on the floor you see it break?
You go and get a mop so you can clean up your mistake.
But did you ever stop to ponder why we know it's true,
if you drop a broken egg you will not get an egg that's new.

That's entropy or E-N-T-R-O to the P to the Y,
the reason why the sun will one day all burn out and die.
Order from disorder is a scientific rarity,
allow me to explain it with a little bit more clarity.
Did I say rarity? I meant impossibility,
at least in a closed system there will always be more entropy.
That's entropy and I hope that you're all down with it,
if you are here's your membership.

Chorus
You down with entropy?
Yeah, you know me! (x3)
Who's down with entropy?
Every last homey!

Defining entropy as disorder's not complete,
'cause disorder as a definition doesn't cover heat.
So my first definition I would now like to withdraw,
and offer one that fits thermodynamics second law.
First we need to understand that entropy is energy,
energy that can't be used to state it more specifically.
In a closed system entropy always goes up,
that's the second law, now you know what's up.

You can't win, you can't break even, you can't leave the game,
'cause entropy will take it all 'though it seems a shame.
The second law, as we now know, is quite clear to state,
that entropy must increase and not dissipate.

Creationists always try to use the second law,
to disprove evolution, but their theory has a flaw.
The second law is quite precise about where it applies,
only in a closed system must the entropy count rise.
The earth's not a closed system' it's powered by the sun,
so fuck the damn creationists, Doomsday get my gun!
That, in a nutshell, is what entropy's about,
you're now down with a discount.

Re:Well, that depends...

[unicron]

Heh-heh, and you thought you had trouble finding your phone...

Re:The truth about perpetual motion

[schon]

Seriously, if the Sun and the earth were the only two objects (no third body problems, PLEASE!!!) and they were point masses then it should from a newtonian perspective always revolve with the same speed for all time.

If there were no third bodies (as you said), and the sun and earth were in a closed, complete vaccuum with no other matter (which they're not), and the radiant energy from the sun didn't have any effect on the earth's movement (which it does - albeit very, very slight) then yeah, they should always rotate the same speed for all time..

But to paraphrase Suzie Derkins, "as long as you're wishing, you should ask for a pony."

Re:Grr

[machine of god]

In this house we OBEY THE ...

Oh wait, nevermind.

Re:You're an idiot

[Lectrik]

They should have figured out a way to more efficiently harness that loss of energy, or designed the engine with parts that better transfer kenetic energy

It's not a matter of not being able to reduce the vibration. It is the vibration of the V-twins that make people want to buy them.

Take away the vibration an no one will want to buy them.

Solution:

1- Buy cheap, efficient, quiet motorcycle
2- take motorcycle to local adult store
3- buy the largest vibrator they have, tell them it's for your girlfriend (it's not like they know you're a geek) make up some story about you having to go away for a week and her needs needing to be filled or some junk.
4- Utilize your mad case-modding skillz to make a recess for the vibrator and connect it to the bike's electrics.

5- Profit
6- ???