Dennis Siegel, a student at the University of the Arts (Germany), has developed a device called an electromagnetic harvester. Basically, it converts electromagnetic signals from the surrounding environment into electricity to recharge a common AA battery.
Siegel demonstrates using his electromagnetic harvester to pick up energy from a cell phone user.
For his device, Siegel was awarded a 2nd place award in the HfK Bremen Hochschulpreis 2013 competing for Digitale Medien.
What is electromagnetism?
If you’re unfamiliar with electromagnetism, then you’ll probably be surprised to hear that it’s something which surrounds us. It comes from everywhere, ranging from natural sources like lighting to electronic devices and machines.
Siegel draws electromagnetic energy from local power lines.
Prior to Siegel, other researchers have made note of the energy’s possibilities as a power source, but he’s the first to find a way to harvest it into something practical.
Not there . . . yet
The problem that Siegel (and researchers before him) run into is that converting electromagnetic signals into electricity is not the most efficient task to take on. This is through no fault of his, but rather, the fact that the amount of electromagnetism surrounding us in a given environment is relatively small.
In fact, it took Siegel’s device a full day to charge a single AA battery.
Siegel standing in front of power plant with several electromagnetic harvesters hooked up to the surrounding fence.
To make the device more efficient, Siegel installed extra electronics to it that allow the capturing of electromagnetism in two ranges. He describes its capability on his website as follows:
A smaller harvester that is suitable for lower frequencies below 100Hz which you can find in the general mains (50/60Hz, 16,7Hz) and a bigger one that is suitable for lower and higher frequencies like radio broadcast (~100MHz), GSM (900/1800MHz) up to Bluetooth and WLAN (2,4GHz).
On top of the device is a red LED that shows how strong the electromagnetism is in a particular area. On the back is a magnet that can affix to a device with a metal surface to allow it to stick onto a nearby source of energy.
Not sharing
Siegel’s been pretty coy about what went into the device to prevent copycats from replicating it. The only description he’s released thus far is that it’s made up of “coils and high frequency diodes”. As a result, we’ll likely have to wait until he patents the idea before we can get a full look at its inner workings. Until then, there’s this video that he put together demonstrating the device:
On the whole, though, Siegel’s electromagnetic harvester is a fascinating little piece of technology. While it might not be able to soak up large amounts of power just yet, it might see more immediate implementation to harvest energy for smaller devices that don’t require as much power. Temperature sensors are a good instance; hearing aids, too. Devices like this could very much benefit from harvesting the electromagnetic energy around it.
Story via: dennissiegel.de
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