Jul 27 2007Crowd Farm turns walking into electricity
Two graduate students at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning are developing what they call the "Crowd Farm", which is a smart floor that would harness the energy of people walking over it and turn it into electricity.
A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station's main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current.
The obvious places to put this in use would be areas with heavy foot traffic, like malls and transit stations. Or my bedroom. It's like a never ending line of ladies in there.
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Reader Comments
1. Solomon - July 27, 2007 4:13 PM
This looks pretty sweet. Though it looks like something out of Metropolis.
2. Claire - July 27, 2007 4:13 PM
wowww thats actually quite cool :D
3. bewarethemidget - July 27, 2007 4:35 PM
They stole my idea. Except mine was paving streets with asian children. Because everyone knows they are one of nature's most renewable resource.
4. Anexio - July 27, 2007 4:43 PM
This could be the stupidest idea ever.
Everyone knows that Americans don't walk anywhere. Casinos in Las Vegas give fat people scooters because they are so fat they can't walk.
We should just burn fat people, it makes more sense.......to me.
5. Dani - July 27, 2007 4:55 PM
Awesome idea, but as Anexio pointed out it may be hard to find a group of americans who walk... In all seriousness though, i bet they could power the NY subway system that way. Found you through the Blogger's Choice Awards wher eyou're nominated for Best Geek Blog. Really think you should give it a go, you have till Nov to collect votes and there is an easy code to get for a brag badge: http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/3824. Best of luck!
6. Dilligaf - July 27, 2007 5:01 PM
The blocks would still depress slightly under the weight of fatties on scooters, so I say go on with building this sucka.
If this doesn't work, I'm for the asian kid idea.
7. Amy - July 27, 2007 5:27 PM
When will they build a gym that harnesses the kinetic energy of all those treadmills?
8. Spooky - July 27, 2007 5:42 PM
Wow :0
9. papa bear - July 27, 2007 7:25 PM
So is this or is this not going to be the equivalent of rubbing my socked feet across a rug for 50 hours so I can deliver mega shocks of electricity?
If it is, my brother better have his insurance premiums paid up. ;)
http://www.sithomeandrot.com
10. Morono - July 27, 2007 9:06 PM
@ 7. Amy - July 27
OMG I've been saying that for years!! everybody thinks it's stupid though
11. Cronick - July 27, 2007 11:33 PM
Shouldn't we be charging them for OUR energy... and shouldn't fat people charge more because they push the bricks down farther and generate more energy?
12. clairy - July 28, 2007 12:33 AM
Easy. I've already looked into it for myself...
13. RandomNigel - July 28, 2007 2:21 AM
@ 7 & 10.
http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2007/03/gym_powered_by_.html
14. resarias - July 29, 2007 11:08 AM
an old concept...but applied beneath/within pavement of highways; perhaps even more workable within the spans of highway overpasses. the concept gets even more intriguing when applied to rail transport.
15. Joe Mamma - July 30, 2007 2:50 PM
@ 7&10 - A treadmill in the conventional sense would not work because it takes a lot of electricity to power it. It is driven by an electric motor not your hopes and dreams. Though if you use a "stair stepper" then this idea would work. I can only assume that that is what you were meaning but it is easier to make fun of you for saying treadmill.
16. Dr.S.S.Verma - August 1, 2007 9:24 AM
Scientists always ponder on possibilities and engineers try to materialise them for the use of mankind. At present energy and environment are the hot topics and scientists are looking all around to harness all types of energy in order to reduce the dependence on polluting conventional sources of energy.
Proposal for the utilisation of waste energy of foot power with human locomotion is very much relevant and important for highly populated countries like India and China where the roads, railway stations, bus stands, temples,etc. are all over crowded and millions of people move around the clock. This whole human/bio energy being wasted if can be made possible for utilization it will be great invention and crowd energy farms will be very useful energy sources in crowded countries.
Let us hope that this invention will reach to the market or to the utilization level and will not fade with time like it happen with many other laboratory inventions.
17. Dean Williams - November 21, 2007 7:52 PM
this sounds like a potentially very interesting idea and would like to know more? is there any way i can get some more information?