TOKYO —

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp has developed prototype shoes with a device that generates electricity when the wearer walks. NTT officials said each shoe is equipped with two tiny water tanks positioned below the toe and heel.

The tanks are connected by a pipe, and with each step, pressure forces water from one tank to another through the pipe. Water flows created in this way power a turbine to generate electricity, the officials said.

The electricity can be stored in a battery or accessed through a cable. The power output of the prototype is small and only enough to power a digital music player, according to the officials.

NTT, which is aiming to put the power generation system into practical use as early as in 2010, hopes to improve the device so that it can generate electricity sufficient to operate a mobile phone that consumes twice as much power as that used by a digital music player, the officials said.

The company also hopes to reduce the size of the power generation unit, the officials said.

The price of shoes equipped with the power unit would likely be only a few thousand yen higher than the average shoes price, according to the officials.

NTT also plans to collaborate with a shoes maker to improve the safety, durability and design of the power-generating shoes before it puts them on the market.

JCN

13 Comments

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  Sidwarwick at 07:35 AM JST - 20th October

  Great idea! These shoes should be issued to death-row inmates so that they could generate the electricity needed to power their chair. That way less expense to the tax payer. The electricity they generate during the months of their appeal process would be gathered and stored in a big battery ready for the big day.

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  thepro at 09:44 AM JST - 20th October

  Yeah, I'm gonna walk around with my phone plugged into my shoes. This is about the dumbest thing I've ever read

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  rjd_jr at 10:09 AM JST - 20th October

  Sounds kind of dumb on paper but I think this has the potential to be very popular. It's annoying when you run out of juice on your personal electronics like cell phones or mp3 player when you are out of the house and out of the office, so it's cool to be able to go for a simple walk and recharge it. If it doesn't add that much to the cost of a shoe I think it has potential.

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  gogogo at 11:50 AM JST - 20th October

  I hope they patented it otherwise there will be a flood of chinese knock offs.... actually thinking about that... they'll do it patent or not.

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  electric2004 at 12:52 PM JST - 20th October

  Actually, sounds like an episode of "Get Smart".

  Probably the additional price of the shoes is higher than the prices of batteries for the same accumulate energy.

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  bamboohat at 01:57 PM JST - 20th October

  A better plan would be to invent a generator attached to the beds in the love hotels to power those other appliances...

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  notimpressed at 02:50 PM JST - 20th October

  go go gadget shoes!!!! These will probably be able to power anything with aa batteries...theres gonna be a whole new range of sex toys with adapter built into them...or hell, why not built a vibro into the shoes themselves. They could also harvest the static electricity of synthetic pants legs rubbing together.

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  cactusJack at 04:54 PM JST - 20th October

  You have to wonder if these shoes would be considered "burnable" garbage, or would they go in the "non-burnable" pile...Just think of the hassle of putting them in the "non-burnable" pile and seeing them the next day with a "THIS IS BURNABLE" sticker on it when in fact, being an electronic device, it belongs in the "non-burnable" pile. What a headache!

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  rajakumar at 05:41 PM JST - 20th October

  Great idea from NTT,soon we will have power anytime we want from our generator shoes for our mobile phones.

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  JohnBecker at 01:09 AM JST - 21st October

  I hope NTT develops the technology, licenses it to Sony to sell with a personal music player, which would be called.....

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  OgieDoggie at 02:00 AM JST - 21st October

  So what happenes when you step into a puddle of water? Do you go up in a puff of smoke?

  Do you really want to be wearing these shoes during an electrical storm?

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  romulus3 at 02:24 PM JST - 21st October

  A better plan would be to invent a generator attached to the beds in the love hotels to power those other appliances..

  30 seconds of bunny on hamster is not gonna cut it however the shoes are a great idea and the idea holds a lot of potential.

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  arunkumardr88 at 09:03 PM JST - 20th December

  i want the full material i am intersted to do as a project pls send the material

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