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posted by janrinok on Saturday April 12 2014, @04:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-so-much-hot-air dept.

UT Arlington (Texas) researchers earlier this year designed a micro-windmill that may become an innovative solution to cell phone charging or other applications where large windmills are not preferred.

Smitha Rao and J.-C. Chiao designed and built the device that is about 1.8 mm at its widest point. A single grain of rice could hold about 10 of these tiny windmills. Hundreds of the windmills could be embedded in a sleeve for a cell phone. Wind, created by waving the cell phone in air or holding it up to an open window on a windy day, would generate the electricity that could be collected by the cell phone's battery.

The micro windmills were tested successfully in September 2013 in Chiao's lab. The windmills operate under strong artificial winds without any fracture in the material because of the durable nickel alloy and smart aerodynamic design.

"The problem most designers have is that materials are too brittle," Rao said. "With the nickel alloy, we don't have that same issue. They're very, very durable."

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by xtronics on Saturday April 12 2014, @04:51PM

    by xtronics (1884) on Saturday April 12 2014, @04:51PM (#30551) Homepage

    I don't think it takes genius to realize that people don't want windmills in their phones.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:20PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:20PM (#30558)

      You might not even notice it. Perhaps it could help charge it up if you wore your phone on your belt just by walking, although I would think gyros might be a better solution. The advantage of wind is that you could get some charge just by leaving it sitting out in most places.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:25PM

        by frojack (1554) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:25PM (#30561) Journal

        Sitting out? You mean like out on the sidewalk? On the roof of your car?
        There is no wind on my desk. (My chair perhaps, but not on the desk).

        When embedded in the cell phone case, as the article suggests, where does the exhaust wind go? You have to have open space behind a turbine, or the wind won't go through the turbine.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 12 2014, @06:40PM

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday April 12 2014, @06:40PM (#30574) Journal

          There is no wind on my desk. (My chair perhaps, but not on the desk).

          The fart-charger: Double-bio, first takes the wind energy, and then burns the released biogas for extra energy. ;-)

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:20PM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:20PM (#30559) Journal

      Ah, but invent anything, hang the words cell phone on it, and grab attention!

      In anything short of a T9 tornado, there simply isn't enough energy in the wind hitting a cell phone sized target to make any headway in charging a battery. Plus they are so delicate that merely handling the phone would destroy them.

      I can't imagine a single realworld use for these.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by xtronics on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:30PM

      by xtronics (1884) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:30PM (#30564) Homepage

      It takes a "useful amount of energy" to charge a phone.

      You also might want to look into the cube root problem involved here and learn about exergy while you are at it. Wishful thinking should not be confused with engineering.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:15PM (#30557)
    Sounds ridiculous to me. How much waving would you have to do to charge a cellphone? Think of all the losses and inefficiencies.

    Those wind-up chargers make way more sense to me.
    • (Score: 1) by moylan on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:54PM

      by moylan (3063) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:54PM (#30568)

      you're thinking about it wrong. we can now put our propeller beanies to good use (http://todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/UltimatePrope llerHead.htm) :-)

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by randmcnatt on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:29PM

    by randmcnatt (671) on Saturday April 12 2014, @05:29PM (#30563)

    I can see how micro windmills would make good particle and pollen detectors, especially up here in the dust bowl.

    --
    The Wright brothers were not the first to fly: they were the first to land.
  • (Score: 1) by EETech1 on Saturday April 12 2014, @06:30PM

    by EETech1 (957) on Saturday April 12 2014, @06:30PM (#30571)

    Imagine putting that case of micro-windmills in your purse, or pocket. It would be like the hook side of velcro.

    Any attempts to pull the threads out of that snare of little windmill blades would result in micro-windmill blades flying everywhere. Attempt to wipe them off, and it would look like a tornado went through a field of windmills, with crushed, and smeared windmill parts scattered about everywhere.

    Look at it compared to the penny! What would win in your pocket? 100,000 micro-windmills, or a few pennies?

    Perhaps they could also design a micro-grille to go around all the micro-windmills, so when it packs full of pocket lint, you can just blow it out with compressed air, and grab a quick charge (just be careful, too much pressure will turn the micro-windmill blades into shrapnel buried in your hand) while you perform the required daily cleaning.

    I see endless applications!

    • (Score: 2) by tynin on Saturday April 12 2014, @07:35PM

      by tynin (2013) on Saturday April 12 2014, @07:35PM (#30585) Journal

      I picture the idea of these windmills actually being housed within the phone case, but the phone case having some air slotting / mesh / something porous enough allow some some air to get through. Sure it would be less efficient, but who cares about efficiency if you are going to just destroy them if they are exposed.

      Then, in theory you could leave your phone beside some air flow and given enough time, it might do the needful.

  • (Score: 3) by zim on Saturday April 12 2014, @09:05PM

    by zim (1251) on Saturday April 12 2014, @09:05PM (#30605)
    Wave my phone around to charge it?

    No... That's stupid.

    I'd rather just carry another battery. Or any of the battery with cord products that will charge those phones without replaceable batterys. Or use a 12 volt plug. Or use a 120 volt plug. Or use any of the solar trickle charge products that already exist. Or charge my phone before i leave home like i do now.

    But i'm not standing there like a dipshit waving my phone around.

    It's a neat technology. But so far this application of it is entirely stupid.
    • (Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:30PM

      by tftp (806) on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:30PM (#30630) Homepage

      But i'm not standing there like a dipshit waving my phone around.

      If you are willing to convert your muscle (fat/sugar) energy into electric power for the phone, waving the phone is the least efficient way to do that. Your arm is heavy, and muscles are not 100% efficient. Most of your muscle power would be wasted on moving the arm, heating it up, sweating, breathing heavily, etc. This is why bicycles have gears - to optimize the power transfer between strong but slow muscles and fast periphery of the wheels.

      There are already muscle-powered generators, and they are far better at extracting your muscle power than this hand-waving stuff. Even if air were to be solid, like rack and pinion, you still would lose power on your arm novement, as I said. But air is not solid; this means further losses, like in a slushbox of an old car. One should be happy to recover 0.1% of the spent energy this way.

      Then there is the issue of protection of those windmills. Phones are small; but you cannot make a cover with tiny holes - it presents a significant resistance to the airflow. Your phone becomes larger, but you won't be using windmills every day - an electric outlet, or a USB port, are far more convenient, and they deliver more power at basically zero cost. I can think of a rare occasion when you, without your car, find yourself in a forest, far from civilization but - magically - within the cellular coverage. Unfortunately, there is no wind in a forest. You need to leave it... which is often the very problem you are trying to solve. You would better off having a magnetic compass and a map in your phone. A GPS receiver would be perfect. Then save power, do not call - send SMS with your coordinates to someone who will rescue you.

      If someone wants to have an emergency backup power source for the phone, most people already have it - it's called a vehicle. But if you are all alone, then invest into a spare battery (maybe a single use one, with a cord that you pull to activate.)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 13 2014, @02:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 13 2014, @02:24PM (#30768)

      Too bad we don't have automatic quartz movements [wikipedia.org] in small form factors [seiko-cleanenergy.com].

  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:49PM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:49PM (#30634)

    Get a tailor to make a path from my ass to the appropriate pocket and my phone will never want for wind.

    --
    It's just a fact of life that people with brains the size of grapes have mouths the size of watermelons. -- Aunty Acid
  • (Score: 1) by gmby on Sunday April 13 2014, @12:58AM

    by gmby (83) on Sunday April 13 2014, @12:58AM (#30645)

    I want to moderate stories "after there posted." Some just don't belong. This trash science is just what we don't need here. Hey I got a story!!! Lets fly kites with keys on them to charge our phones/cars/tvs/vibrators! Lets bury lemons and metal in the sand and make batteries!!! Fuck lets just put an offset crank on my wifes ass connected to a generator during sex! That will solve all our energy problems!!

    Enough!

    Fix the editors,submitters or let use moderate!

    And no the "prefs" to turn off sections is not an option. I also don't want to have to make a white list of submitters ether.
    Sorry for the rant.

    Tired of the "look what i can do;" But they can't! Oh yeah in about 5 years they will have it right. Or NOT!

    Uhg! Bye for now....

    --
    Bye /. and thanks for all the fish.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 13 2014, @04:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 13 2014, @04:43AM (#30695)

    Windpower produced is proportional to the area of the device and the wind velocity cubed. If the wind is blowing fast enough you can power anything with something 1.8 mm in size.

    Possible? Yes. Practical? Fuck no. Unless you are driving you car at 300 mph into a hurricane and want to hang your phone out the window.

  • (Score: 1) by Fry on Monday April 14 2014, @01:49AM

    by Fry (642) on Monday April 14 2014, @01:49AM (#31095)

    Notice how the UTA ad says nothing about the power output of these devices? That's all the clue you need to know that this is pure crap.