Shoe-Powered Generator Could Power Implantable Devices

A recent slideshow profiled six promising alternative technologies for medical devices, which including a couple of technologies that could potentially power implantable cardiac devices; among them was a heart-powered pacemaker and an ear-powered battery, and a wireless power transmitter.

Now, researchers at Rice University have developed a shoe-powered generator capable of harvesting an average of 400 milliwatts of power in benchtop testing, sufficient to charge the battery of an electronic device and, potentially, implantable medical devices.

Four Rice seniors partnered with Motion Analysis Laboratory at Shriners Hospital for Children in Houston and ascertained that the heel of the shoe was the best candidate for powering a generator. They set out to build a prototype shoe known as the PediPower. A lever arm attached to a gearbox rotates a gear with each step. This then drives a motor attached to the shoe to generate electricity, which is then delivered to a battery.

In the future, the researchers may attempt to create a prototype that generates power from the ball as well as the heel of the shoe.

The research was sponsored by Cameron, a Houston-based company that makes large-scale flow equipment that works with the Texas Heart Institute in the development of artificial heart pumps.

Brian Buntz is the editor-at-large at UBM Canon's medical group. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz. 

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