Keyboard generates electricity for notebooks
Elena Vnorovscaia / Chişinău / Moldova.ORG / -- Compaq has developed a keyboard that generates electricity as one type. That will allow keeping a laptop battery charged.
It was Australian researchers who have invented the way to use the energy one spend when typing in order to recharge a laptop. In more scientific words, scientists have found an effective way to use the so-called piezoelectricity or piezo-electric crystals.
Compaq has patented the idea in the US, but it was one of the company's software engineers, Adrian Crisan, who came up with the design.
The new technology uses the same principles as the ordinary cigarette lighter in which a spark is created by the impact of a piezoelectric crystal.
Each key on the keyboard has tiny permanent magnet on it, which when passed through wire coils surrounding the shaft, induces a tiny current. The current charges a capacitor, which in turn charges the computer's battery.
However, to charge the laptop battery, scientists will have to create a very thin piezoelectric film. The new material can only be developed using nanotechnology. The film is so thin that it can easily be applied to various electronic components and integrated into the high-tech gadgets.
Initially, the system will make a laptop heavier and more expensive, but Compaq predicts that as with other components, this may not be the case for long.
Crisan said: "Consumers are willing to pay for longer battery life. [This keyboard] could mean a 1kg notebook instead of a 1.5kg machine, or one that would last 10 hours on one charge as long as you keep typing." The modified design should not affect the way the keyboard feels to users either, as most keyboard already have springs under keys in case they stick. Crisan says that the generator should not add any noticeable resistance to the typist.
According to an Australian reseach co-author, Dr. Madhu Bhaskarana, piezoelectrics can easily be integrated into the shoe, which will produce electricity to charge, for example, mobile phone.
These materials can also be used to convert blood pressure in the power source for pacemakers. Scientists are also looking for ways to recharge the sensor devices using piezoelectric film.
But the most interesting idea of this so-called piezoelectricity, in its essence, is about creating a "perpetual battery". It sounds incredible!
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