JR East to test electricity generation by train riders

Imagine if they could harness the horsepower that all the tooth-sucking oyaji expend at any one moment in the day across the country.

 

LOL

Of course there are no safety concerns with this, right?
No potential health hazards down the road if this form of electricity generation becomes commonplace? Just curious.

 

now didn't I comment on this contraption about 2 years ago? I thought JR was long over this waste of money years ago. If I remember correctly it was for a competition on eco and a little girl drew up this contraption to make human guinea pigs. It used to be something like 1 million people can make a light bulb light up for a few minutes so I guess it is getting a little more efficient. One could imagine the entire station rigged up, but after people start tripping and falling over the unstable and hard to maintenance floor the cost of medical bills will exceed any profit made.

 

"Piezoelectric devices in speakers produce vibration, and sound, when activated by electric current. Using the reverse principle, JR East engineers have been testing the use of vibration on pieozoelectric devices to produce electricity. The tests at Tokyo Station's Yaesu North entrance will run until early March. The amount of electricity produced will be shown on a monitor near the gate."

Will these be out on the platforms as well?

How much kinetic energy will eventually be produced from say, a punch out featuring Old Taro the Veteran, angry at Upstart Section Manager Tanaka about a throwaway comment he made in the company cafeteria three weeks ago, who belts the JR rookie assigned to rush hour platform duty for the unpardonable transgression of answering his drunken and pointless queries with a still detectable inakamon accent?

 

i'll make sure i do my part by giving the sensor a good kick next time.

 

...they could also incorporate this on the platform (lined up with where the train doors are), in the seats (train bumps, passengers bounce, kinetic energy!) and in the straps for standees.

Piezoelectric devices have been producing (small amounts of) electricity for quite a while. Those fancy cigarette lighters that click and create a spark to light the gas work on this piezoelectric principle. Scaling it up and capturing the converted energy (kinetic to electric) isn't a bad idea, provided they can make it work consistently.

If only they could capture the energy from the thumbs of the Olympic-level text messagers on the trains...

 

I wore my old crimplene trousers it might cause extra static electicity as I went through the gates.

 

are already employed in vehicle toll gates in some parts of the world.

This process works well when you have a constant "pounding" type force. A vehicle toll gate is a good example as are staircases.

The energy is instantaneous so there must be a good way to harvest and store this energy for later use. Ultra capacitors and silicon nano tech batteries come to mind.

 

they should mount these devices in the steps going to and from the platforms. Think of how much energy they could get back from all the commuters rushing to get the train before the doors close.

And again at the end of the day when everyone goes home and climbs those same steps again to go home...

But in the end, the big question is how much will this save the passengers? Will we see discounts on the fares since we are now working for JR to produce electricity?

As potential electricity-making employees of JR, will we get health insurance? If we fall down at one of these ticket gates, will that constitute a work-related injury?

 

What happens to people spitting or urinating on the floor? Do they get electrocuted?

 

I hear they're also working on a device to power trains by sexual chemistry.

 

Or they could produce a lot of static electricity from all the passengers rubbing against each other during rush hour.

They'd just need to make everyone wear special battery charging vests.

 

Fitness clubs should also set something like this and harness the energy that people currently pay to burn off.

Fitness clubs should tie up with power companies, and in fact pay humans to come and exercise.

I'd sign up :)

 

I hear they're also working on a device to power trains by sexual chemistry.

Is that the Shinkansen, or are you just happy to see me?