Thanks to a new technological development, in future, people will be able to generate electrical power just by running or walking, so don't worry when the power for your MP3 player or digital camera runs out, since every step you take while walking or running can help produce electrical power to charge the battery.

Developed by an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Prince Royal's College in Chiang Mai, it is hoped the technology will open up new avenues for people to generate electrical power.

"As energy is one of the country's problems, and we're looking for new energy sources, I think we could benefit if the power source could be our body movements," said the developer, Nithiwadee Thaicharoen

Her idea is to use magnets wrapped with electrical coils to generate electrical power according to movements of the person wearing them.

The magnets, she said, would be put into a pipe and kept in a person's bag or pocket. When they run or walk, the movement of their body would make the magnet inside move up and down.

"Since electrical coils are wrapped around the magnet, the movement will respond to the generation of electrical current on the coils and this will allow us to produce our own power," she explained.

In an experiment, Nithiwadee wrapped 5,400 loops of electrical coil around the magnet.

To generate the power, she ran three to four steps and found the magnet could produce current of around three to four milliamps.

"So if we run faster or give the magnet more movement, it will be possible to generate more electrical current," she said.

The current, however, cannot be used at once as it's alternating current.

The inventor said rectifier equipment is also needed to convert the current into direct current so that batteries can be charged.

The amount of electrical power generated from this method is not a great deal as yet.

She said that if users wanted to fully charge a battery, it would take quite a long time.

A suitable application is to generate just enough power to extend the battery's life a little.

"I don't expect to use body movements to fully charge the battery, but simply to extend the battery life when it's nearly run out. That way we could use our small gadgets a little longer," she said.

The technology can be used to charge AA and AAA chargeable batteries and she hopes to extend her project to cover other batteries as well.

She also plans to develop the technology further.

She hopes to make the device strong enough to generate more power and eventually become a product that can be used in real life.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation

pongpen@nationgroup.com