Researchers hope to charge up gadgetry with body heat

We've heard of firms tinkering with the idea of converting excess heat directly to energy, and apparently, a team of scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have done just that. Oddly enough, the researchers admit that they're still unclear on how their findings actually work, but they've nevertheless discovered how to increase the conversion efficiency of converting waste heat to energy "by a factor of 100." The authors of the report suggest that clothing constructed of material embedded with thermoelectric modules could one day "recharge mobile electronic devices off the heat of one's body," and while we're certainly stoked about the idea, we're already conjuring up awful images in our minds about what this garb will actually look like.

[Via textually, image courtesy of FourEyesJokeShop]

[Luke @ Jan 21st 2008 3:42PM]

The Matrix has you!

[jeeesus @ Jan 21st 2008 3:47PM]

best picture ever on engadget

[Tilded-One @ Jan 21st 2008 4:10PM]

@ Luke. _Exactly_ what I was thinking... "Could the battery farms be far behind?" Blah, blah, robotic overlords....

[aguiluz @ Jan 21st 2008 4:52PM]

Oh no... Does this work by draining out your body heat until you die of hypothermia?

[Tachikomatic @ Jan 21st 2008 3:43PM]

That kid looks far, far too happy to be wearing a giant cellphone costume.

[j_g_puff @ Jan 21st 2008 3:47PM]

...but how do you stop him from crawling out of your pocket?

[drakono @ Jan 21st 2008 3:51PM]

Don't dial 0. You'll get arrested for that.

[Sendoh @ Jan 21st 2008 11:38PM]

guess i cant call the police then :\ (Australian police is 000)

[ekwmin @ Jan 21st 2008 4:00PM]

So when your PDA starts running low on battery start sprinting! Nice matrix reference.

[hemmy @ Jan 21st 2008 4:06PM]

Oh god, think of the roaming charges.

Badum-pish!

Thank you! Thank you! You guys have been great!

[Niraj @ Jan 21st 2008 4:11PM]

Wouldn't something like this leave you a lot colder than you would normally be? Like in the winter when you wear clothes that will hold in body heat?

[Andrew @ Jan 21st 2008 4:19PM]

Sounds a lot like the matrix

[rento @ Jan 21st 2008 4:20PM]

With a good flu I can charge my Tesla!

[Sauerkraut @ Jan 21st 2008 4:38PM]

hahha, good thought!!


damn i can't get over how annoying that kid is

[STUD HUNK @ Jan 21st 2008 4:23PM]

hmmm...

Not just clothing - perhaps the technology could oneday advance to allow mattresses to be able to recharge small gadgets while we are sleeping on the beds - perhaps by inserting them in an openning

[Shawin @ Jan 21st 2008 4:23PM]

The researchers just want to plug the power adapter in their (i-won't-say-what) instead of power sockets.

[Khris @ Jan 21st 2008 4:36PM]

And just think......the term "Cranking one out" could have a whole new meaning.

You could recharge your cell phone/laptop while getting off to porn. Vicious cycle!

[Kizorblade @ Jan 21st 2008 5:11PM]

How is that vicious?

[kris @ Jan 21st 2008 4:47PM]

I for one welcome our body-heat harvesting robotic overlords.

[Lemmin @ Jan 21st 2008 5:13PM]

This would be much more usefull if it could be implanted under the skin to power pacemakers, cochlear implants and other stuff. No need to charge up every day then! It would be a massive boon to the medical industry, and would probably eventually lead the way to augmentation implants like under-skin watches and implantable MP3 players....

[Nerdelphia.com @ Jan 21st 2008 5:16PM]

Wow,
Good thing I don't mind thick women. Shade in the summer, warmth in the winter, and 18 hours for laptop in the spring!

[Anthony @ Jan 21st 2008 5:30PM]

Hey, isnt that Michael Jackson's cell phone? lol

[Gooel @ Jan 21st 2008 5:36PM]

Heya
Ur my bff.
g2g k?
ttyl

[hoola @ Jan 21st 2008 5:36PM]

I just want to say I love MJ but I had to LOL really hard at the MJ cell phone. comment. very nice

[Vandalous @ Jan 21st 2008 5:37PM]

And since the warmest parts of your body are your armpits and your naughty bits, the joke applications of this development are off the charts.

"Battery Recharging Deodorant" by Energizer/Right Guard. Protect against odor and dead batteries with our armpit pouch. Plus, your armpit hair act as a natural contact cleaner for your battery.

[Jake @ Jan 21st 2008 5:40PM]

Are you people freaking crazy? The billions of dollars spent every month keeping warm things cool and the most interesting application we can think up is charging our iphones? Don't any of you actually pay your own electric bills in the summer?

I hate nerds.

[DonatoM3 @ Jan 21st 2008 7:11PM]

What does this have to do with not paying for electricity. It's about being able to charge your cell phone/pda/mp3 player while you're away from an electrical outlet. Would you rather people sit at a coffee shopped using their electricity instead?

[Bobs @ Jan 21st 2008 10:44PM]

"nerds" are responsible for the computer that keeps your car running, the internet, and every major adcancement in electronics and transportation. i like playing games online with my friends, and i certanly like the enhanced productivity that a open office or word processor gives me, no more white out. how can you still hate nerds? let alone the medical advancements, pace makers, EKG machenes....

[Jake @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:29AM]

Look, I didn't mean to come off as so hostile. I was trying to sort of mock a group that I belong to. I mean, you don't see the silliness in only seeing such petty uses for a technology to more efficiently convert waste heat to electricity? I only meant the nerds tend to be fairly narrow in our focus. I am sorry if I offended.

[Jake Tobak @ Jan 21st 2008 5:52PM]

They need to throw this into some heat-sinks to reduce PC energy costs.

[bob @ Jan 21st 2008 6:43PM]

Or...they could make it feed off the excess energy produced by the devices, too. I men, instead of your Dell catching fire from overheat, you could use it to charge your two hour battery! Meh, wearing this stuff would be weird, but I think if you laid this stuff on car hoods and in the desert, it would be for the win. Actually, it gets pretty warm underneath solar cells...

Anyways, you know that pathetic cell message on the kids outfit? Thats what an average text looks like. Pathetic as it may seem, your blowing a hundred a month because your 16 year old daughter thinks that "Heya. Your my bff. G2G, k? ttyl" is cool. Sucks for you parents out there.

[bartoron @ Jan 21st 2008 8:15PM]

So is the picture of some kid wearing a Halloween costume or something? Because I totally want one of those.

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA, PHONE MAN!

[Anthony @ Jan 21st 2008 10:11PM]

"they've nevertheless discovered how to increase the conversion efficiency of converting waste heat to energy "by a factor of 100."

Uh, why not put that technology into laptops to take heat off the processor and turn it back into energy that powers the laptop. I mean, we have an excess of heat we're trying to get rid of and numerous technologies that can turn heat into energy, so why are we doing nothing but dissipating the heat.

[Danny @ Jan 21st 2008 10:15PM]

How high tech! That was our Engineering senior design project 2 years ago haha. Note to LBNL: Look at walking, you'll get a lot more power there guys.

[Jozef_woods @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:19AM]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but I have a much better use for the technology:
People spend truly ludicrous amounts to keep, for instance, a computer CPU cool, and then have to buy an enormous PSU to cope. Feed the heat from the CPU into powering the computer, and cut the upkeep costs dramatically (most of the energy inputted into a computer is lost due to heat at one point or another).

[Deep @ Jan 23rd 2008 2:09AM]

ha ha ha, what a picture

[Skeetso @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:57AM]

How about using your body fluids to power you gadgets http://secondsupper.com/Satire/Article.aspx?ArticleID=399