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Batteries to be Recharged by Shaking

3:20 AM - July 28, 2010 - By Marcus Alianza - Source : Tom's Guide US

So will this make vibration toys self-sustaining?

A Japanese manufacturer has developed a prototype battery that can be recharged by shaking it. Brother Industries Ltd. has produced a Vibration-Powered Generating Battery that is an induction generator and double layer capacitor in a battery-shaped case, according to Hideyoshi Kume of Nikkei Electronics. Prototypes include:

 - a AA-sized one that combines the generator and capacitor into one case for a low voltage

 - higher voltage AA and AAA-sized versions with separate cases for the generator and the capacitors

Brother Industries aims to "semipermanently eliminate the need to replace batteries and contribute to reducing the amount of wastes" with this new product. Or in other words, slash the battery budget and electric bill of most consumers. The company wants to see its battery powering low-power consumption devices including remotes, LED flashlights and garage door openers.

Brother Industries will premier its vibration-powered generating battery at Techno-frontier 2010, an exhibition that will run from July 21 to 23, 2010 in Tokyo. There is still no word on the availability.

Comments

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hack__you 07/28/2010 9:57 AM
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-20+

Yes! Self-sustaining vibrat....ing gamepads

bebangs 07/28/2010 9:58 AM
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-16+

now i need a vibrator to recharge these batteries. ^_^

mman74 07/28/2010 10:00 AM
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-8+

Wow! The perpetual powered vibrator!

CTPAHHIK 07/28/2010 11:03 AM
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-4+

A battery like that for cell phone would be great. AA or AAA, not sure. I can always walk over to charger and get a fresh set.

hardcore_gamer 07/28/2010 11:10 AM
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-7+

ideal battery for wii-mote and playstation move

Pailin 07/28/2010 12:34 PM
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-5+

Just leave them on the washing machine now and then ~_^

weirdguy99 07/28/2010 1:50 PM
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-3+

I've had this technology in my torch for over 3 years now..what is with Tom's and old news.

sot010174 07/28/2010 2:09 PM
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-5+

I bet Duracell will buy the patent and will cease to allow production of any device of that kind. Lol

Griffolion 07/28/2010 2:12 PM
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--2+

Have this company just stumbled upon perpetual motion? With all the comments about female masturbation devices, i think they may just have broken the 2nd law of thermodynamics... lol

greghome 07/28/2010 3:13 PM
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-0+

Imagine what the sex toy industry can do with this,
a vibrator that will never run out of batteries.....................
=D

twu 07/28/2010 3:13 PM
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-3+

That will help electric cars, specially offroad.

fritter87 07/28/2010 3:38 PM
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doesn't seem like that big of a jump from this horrible excuse for a flashlight

zak_mckraken 07/28/2010 3:44 PM
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-3+

mman74 :
Wow! The perpetual powered vibrator!


It just keep going and going and going...

Sneaky Jedi 07/28/2010 3:57 PM
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-2+

So now I can recharge things like Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes, yay!

Anonymous 07/28/2010 5:00 PM
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--3+

THIS IS A VERY GOOD IDEA FOR LIGHT TORCH IN A CAR OR FOR YOU REMOTE CONTROL: NEVER CHANGE THE BATTERIES. JUST SHAKE IT AND CHANGE CHANNEL !

tokenz 07/28/2010 5:02 PM
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weirdguy99 :
I've had this technology in my torch for over 3 years now..what is with Tom's and old news.



Your torch has this built in. Not a replaceable battery that does it. Quit trolling.

mgilbert 07/28/2010 5:19 PM
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Uh, sorry... To be self sustaining would require greater than 100% efficiency, which is impossible.

pocketdrummer 07/28/2010 5:39 PM
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I hear millions of rejoicing women.... and billions of weeping men.

zak_mckraken 07/28/2010 6:27 PM
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mgilbert :
Uh, sorry... To be self sustaining would require greater than 100% efficiency, which is impossible.


First, don't rain down on our parade.

Second, it would need 100% efficiency, no more (provided we give it the energy it needs to start with). ie.: If it consumes 1 watt and generates 1 watt, provided it already has the 1 watt needed at the start, it is self sustaining.

Impossible? A man can only dream...

Jerther 07/28/2010 6:35 PM
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weirdguy99 :
I've had this technology in my torch for over 3 years now..what is with Tom's and old news.



I thought of that too.. Except the batteries built in those devices are SO BAD! I trashed two of those torches because they wouldn't hold charge anymore after like a year. So much for environment friendliness...

Now I hope Brother came with a design that will last longer than that!

ajcroteau 07/28/2010 7:09 PM
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This is not new technology, Flashlights have been doing this for years...

beayn 07/28/2010 7:15 PM
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So just put an attachment on a Fleshlight and WoW players can charge their mouse batteries daily!

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/07/15/wow-pervs.jpg

husker 07/28/2010 7:28 PM
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mgilbert :
Uh, sorry... To be self sustaining would require greater than 100% efficiency, which is impossible.


It gets power from the outside world in the form of kinetic energy (shaking) so it does not need to be 100% efficient. It would only need to be 100% efficient if it was both the source of energy for the shaking and the consumer of the energy from the shaking. Since the source of the shaking to recharge it is presumably from external sources it will work.

WheelsOfConfusion 07/28/2010 8:27 PM
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These aren't really "batteries" so much as supercapacitors, which take a charge much more readily without the need for high voltages or monitored currents. Makes it easy to recharge them with weak, sporadic bursts of energy from an inductor.
Unfortunately even supercaps have an energy density that's at least an order of magnitude lower than even NiCads. Think of those flashlights everyone's talking about: to power a single white LED for a few minutes requires a solid minute of rigorous shaking. I have a hard time thinking that these inductor/capacitor units could power modern gadgetry for a significant length of time unless they're being constantly jostled. Might be good to run your sport FM/MP3 player while jogging, though.

Twoboxer 07/28/2010 8:58 PM
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Great for cell phones - always enough power for one more important/emergency call. Also great for stuff you use so infrequently that the batteries are dead by the time you need it - like the flashlights that are already available.

CPfreak 07/28/2010 9:18 PM
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for cell phones and wiimotes+that ps3 thingy, but i can't think f anything else.

eddieroolz 07/28/2010 9:35 PM
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Infinite-on vibrator! Or gamepads! Or cellphones!

gm0n3y 07/28/2010 11:10 PM
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I don't think that these would generate enough power to be useful for a cellphone, at least not with current technology. But as mentioned in the article, very low power hand held devices like garage door openers, keychain LEDs, etc could be possible.

The problem is that regular batteries used in those devices already last a long time (the remote batteries that came with my last TV outlived the TV) and if these are a lot more expensive, people likely won't buy them.

kingssman 07/29/2010 12:16 PM
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After using the shakelight for so long and still loving it, i'm glad they finally came with this

eddieseven 07/29/2010 1:20 AM
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Just dont stand behind walls or windows when shaking lest people get the wrong idea.


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