Heelys put to good use: energy harvesting

If you've ever visited a British shopping mall, you'll be aware that there's a plague sweeping the formerly great nation: annoying little kids riding around on their "Heelys," sneakers with wheels in the rear of the heal. Christian Croft, obviously a frequent watcher of The Matrix, thought to turn this mischievous toy into a force for good -- or, at the very least, a source of energy for our inevitable overlords. The Energy Harvesting Derive is a project that plugs the wheel into a mini-generator, which is in turn plugged into a small LCD mounted above the toe of the shoe. That wheel powered LCD could in the future give out useful information once a GPS receiver is attached, although for now it's acting as an ironic urban art project and is giving out random directions, all in an attempt to get people lost so that they interact with their environment. Well in that case, sounds like just the thing it needs is GPS.

[nih @ Sep 9th 2007 9:20PM]

That's just begging for eight big guys with guns to shoot you in the head to 'save everyone'.

I give him two days and he's a corpse.

[Reader @ Sep 9th 2007 11:59PM]

Isn't it amazing how a thread about Heely's turns into an Apple-Microsoft fanboy suck-off?


Well I might as well add this thing looks just like the iPhone.

[chrish @ Sep 9th 2007 9:22PM]

I bet those would go over real well at airport security.

[imacmatt09 @ Sep 9th 2007 9:41PM]

your mom would go real well with airport security.

[chrish @ Sep 9th 2007 9:45PM]

Don't be a tard mac boy!

[imacmatt09 @ Sep 9th 2007 9:48PM]

;)

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 9th 2007 10:51PM]

@chrish

Aren't all mac boys arrogant tards?


PC For the win!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qdTvJ9inew

[Legodude522 @ Sep 9th 2007 11:33PM]

As a Mac user, I do not condone such arrogance. I hope you burn with the rest of the fanboys.

[Brooks @ Sep 9th 2007 11:48PM]

Fairly sure he's referencing information from one of the recent generations of Powerbooks before the step to Intel. Also he references the "hockey puck", which was phased out during the summer of 2000. I've been a PC guy all my life, went to school for IT, decided to change focus and study audio production, bought a macbook pro, and i'm wholly satisfied. It runs windows when I need it to, and my home theatre PC is still happily running XP Pro. The OS's can co-exist, it's just fanboys (on both sides) that give the bad wraps.

[pechorin @ Sep 9th 2007 9:25PM]

cool design

[Andrew Carlos @ Sep 9th 2007 9:27PM]

Not only is that big in the UK, but also in the US.
I have such an awful urge to trip any kid using that at the mall.

[Kane @ Sep 10th 2007 3:41AM]

As far as i've seen they're bigger in the US than the UK. When i visited Florida these crappy things were everywhere. Whereas i have only seen one or two trippable little hooligans rolling around over here in the UK

[bjrcboy @ Sep 9th 2007 9:44PM]

They arent nearly as popular as they use to be. I remember in 7th grade when they first came out and kids started to crack their heads open. Nearly every school district started to ban heely's or you werent allowed to have the wheels in them and so forth. I for one never saw the point.. waste of money if you ask me

[jccalhoun @ Sep 9th 2007 9:48PM]

Yes, they are around here in the USA as well. I for one welcome them because nothing says, "Spoiled brat to totally avoid" like a kid who has those. Anything to make picking out the brats easier and increase their mortality rate is something to be encouraged in my eyes.

[Michael Morris @ Sep 9th 2007 9:50PM]

I normally push those kids over!

[STIEN @ Sep 9th 2007 9:57PM]

I HATE THOSE HEELYS!! SO OVERRATED AND KIDDISH!!! OK I KNO A FRESHMAN WITH THOSE THINGS!! I WANNA TRIP HIM SOO BAD WHEN HE SHOWS OFF WITH THOSE CRAPPY THINGS!!!

[Fatass of Kickassness @ Sep 9th 2007 11:44PM]

Theres nothing more kiddish than caps lock. Shaddup.

[STIEN @ Sep 15th 2007 10:01PM]

actually i used the shift key thank you very much

[paul34 @ Sep 9th 2007 10:00PM]

Just Britain? They're wildly popular here. Quite frankly, I wish I had something like that when I was a kid. They're actually pretty cool, and at least the kids learn to do something. From what I hear its sort of like skating or bike riding... otherwise you will fall over!

[coffeepot64 @ Sep 10th 2007 8:12AM]

Nope, you can walk in them too, but why bother. The faster you get to your destination the faster you can move on to something else. Its just another form of instant gratification.

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 9th 2007 10:55PM]

ummmm, not to be annoying but that big green block is clearly an LCD not 'LED'.. unless led lights now have tiny displays in them. that would be cool...

[Kevin @ Sep 9th 2007 11:46PM]

I, for one, welcome our Heely powered overlords.

[Oban @ Sep 10th 2007 12:41AM]

I am really not getting this whole PC vs Mac thing. They are both intel based computers capable of running windows or OSx, or pretty much any other OS - other than packaging, what is the difference?

[Whatsizface @ Sep 10th 2007 12:57AM]

Uh oh.

Ugly can of worms you opened there Oban.

Let the flaming begin.

[Maff @ Sep 10th 2007 3:57AM]

"formerly great nation"
wanker

"shopping mall"
they're called shopping centres in this great nation (note how centre is spelled correctly)

[Vinay @ Sep 10th 2007 3:57PM]

But you have the spelling, 'spelled' instead of the more British, 'spelt'.


:)

[shaun @ Sep 10th 2007 5:08AM]

I worked in a sports shop (until when I quit that bloody hellhole yesterday!) and people go mad for those heelys, I dont even understand why, if you really wanna roll around then we also sold strap on wheels and they were about 20% of the price

Sportsworld are wankers, never shop there

[ilh @ Sep 10th 2007 8:25AM]

O how I hate them. Been at work for a few months for the summer and then I go to town for the first time since starting work and they're everywhere!

[MichaelLC @ Sep 10th 2007 8:30AM]

I actually thought of Dune's stillsuits before THe Matrix.

[soulonice @ Sep 11th 2007 12:59PM]

stop saying ironic. it's not ironic.