IT GIVES a whole new meaning to “power walking”. Strap on a pair of leg braces and with a little extra effort you can generate enough electricity while you walk or run to charge up your cellphone or laptop, or perhaps even a prosthetic arm.
The brace, built by Max Donelan and colleagues at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, harvests around 5 watts of power from the motion of a walking pair of legs – enough to power 10 cellphones. A gear on the brace twists as you stride along, causing an attached electricity generator to spin and generate power (…
