On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:15:34 -0700 (PDT), sparky
wrote:

Quite similar to the self winding mechanical wrist watches.
Certainly nothing new !

It's called "energy scavenging". It's a big thing in portable product
design. If it reduces battery size, or eliminates the battery, it's a
winner. I'm finding such ideas in watches, shoes, automobile shock
absorbers, PDA's, etc. It will take a while for them to come to
market but I expect them to be commonplace fairly soon.

I'm surprised nobody has made a wind-up cell phone. Besides not
requiring a battery or charger (uses a super-capacitor), it will keep
the chronic talkers in line. Not exactly energy scavenging, but (in
my opinion) just as good.

Incidentally, I designed, prototyped, but never produced a paper tape
printing pager in the early 1970's. The pager ran on batteries, but
the 1/4" paper tape transport and printing was all wind-up mechanical.
I also proposed a wind-up portable floppy disk drive in the 1980's,
which was summarily rejected by literally everyone as a lousy idea. Oh
well.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558