Kinetic Shirt

My first posting is about Kinetic shirt. This shirt could produce electricity energy from the wearer's moving. Just move your body, then you are the generator. The function for this technology is for recharge your gadget's power anywhere at anytime without necessity of AC electric outlet. Remember a phenomenal watch, Seiko Kinetic? Their way of working is same, but different in final process. In Seiko, the energy that you make from your move is used directly for revolving watch's needle. But in this shirt, like I said before, to recharge your mobile phone, MP3 player, or other small electrical appliances. With this costume stick on your body, you will forget the idiom "low batt". Anytime it get weak, just move or dance. And your gadget will cheer up again.

The project for making this shirt possible is called CSIRO, held by CSIRO's Energy Technology Division. Dr Adam Best, the leader of the CSIRO project, predicted the first power shirts could be developed within five years.

The question is, how could it technically possible? From the moving body become electricity power? Let me tell you the secret. The magic word is Piezo. This is a special material, which could create an electrical charge if it bent, deformed, or stressed. Piezo material transforms energy from mechanical to electrical, and vice-versa. The needing of stress is 0,1 - 0,3%, which mean very small. You dont need a big power to stress piezo in order to make energy. We could see this material in microphone. Your sound wave will stress piezo. On this way, piezo will transforms wave of sound into electric wave. In kinetic shirt, piezo get the stress and bend by our move. This bend or stress will be transformed into electric power. By adding printed flexible circuit, appliances could then be plugged into the shirt.

And talking about piezo material, just came out from my head, a thought about Thomas Alva Edison. He placed this material in a doll, and put a funnel at it's back. The idea is to make a moving doll generated by voice. Then, as a brithday present for his daughter, he gave it and say a phenomenal sentence that we could hear until now: Mary had a little lamb! Voila, the birthday kid was happy, the doll suddenly moved!