Researchers design pedal-powered laptop
A group of US students have come up with a way to
recharge your laptop without plugging it in. Rather
than consuming electricity, youll be burning calories
your own.
Researcher Laxmi Rao pedals the adapted exercise bike
to generate power for her laptop
The students built an exercise bicycle that uses
pedalling power to charge a laptop computer,
allowing you to bike while you work.
Students Piotr Fidkowski, Sebastian Figari, Sara John,
Kendra Johnson, Julia Kiberd, Tina Lai and Devon
McCorkle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) teamed up with Laxmi Rao of MITs Information
Services and Technology to connect a laptop to an
exercise bike as part of a school project.
In their design, belts and gears convey the motion of
the wheel to a generator in the back, which charges a
conventional 12-volt battery like that in a
car.
A charge controller regulates the electricity coming
to the battery to prevent overcharging. The battery
supplies electricity to the laptop, which rests
on a tray atop a swivelling arm in place of the
handlebars.
The bike seat is adjustable and the laptop easily
movable. So a person of any height can produce an
arrangement thats comfortable and ergonomic for both
pedalling and computing.
Weve put a cover over the wheel that ensures the
riders clothing wont get caught, Rao says.
In preliminary calculations, the students predicted
that a bicyclist should be able to produce up to 75
watts continuously far more than the 30 watts
needed to power the laptop.
Indeed, in an initial test drive, Figari easily
generated 50 watts while checking his email.
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