Joao Lammoglia is a Brazilian designer and innovator who has designed a unique AIRE mask that converts the energy generated by human breathing into electricity. This product can be worn by people, while they are relaxing, reading, watching TV or running and as they breathe, it charges an electronic devices (like smart phone, etc.). Doesn't that sound interesting?
It is my strong belief that each and every person can initiate a positive change. Even if individual efforts make a very small difference, it has the capacity to inspire many people around them. With the advent of social media, a lot of people around the world will be inspired, too. Good ideas spread like wildfire, and this one is worth spreading.
One person using a device like this may not make much of a difference, but a few million people using such a device will drastically reduce our energy requirements and our carbon footprint. If everyone uses their mains to charge mobile phones/tablets/ipods and other electronic gadgets, the strain on the grid will only increase and that energy predominantly comes from conventional sources.
The TEDx Gateway video where Joao Lammoglia speaks about his invention and how it can create a huge difference to the society, is embedded above. You can also watch it in Youtube.
It seems, the human energy is basically divided into two - Active Energy (To move, run, etc) and Passive Energy (Inherent in our body and enables organs to work, etc). The energy of the body can be used to generate electricity, is what he says.
Internally,
- Energy generated by the heart beat can be used to power the pacemaker.
- Energy generated by the brain can be used to power some medical device.
Externally,
- The energy generated by our movements, like walking or jogging, can be used to generate electricity. There are piezoelectric crystals which convert motion in to electricity and they are already popular. In fact, there are steps that illuminate themselves when someone walks on them.
- The AIRE mask being described in this blog post can convert the vibration of air displacement (while breathing) into electricity using the piezoelectric concept.
This concept can find applications in many industries, for example - medial, aerospace, safety industries. But it's important that people need to encourage such innovations and start using them. Or at least, spread the concept and make more people aware of them.
Saving the environment is not Government's duty alone, but it is also the duty of each and every citizen of this world.
Alternative: On a related note, we can also use solar chargers (that come with small solar panels) to charge the cell phones using the power of the sun. Have a look at this and this. A solar charger generally comes with an inbuilt battery and hence users can just keep the charger/battery combo in the sun and charge the built-in battery first. Then, they can bring the fully charged kit and charge their cell phones, tablets, etc. The advantage with this method is, you need not expose the electronic items to the sun and it can be very useful to charge equipment while traveling, inside a hotel room, etc.
