Walk the Walk and Charge Your Talk: New Shoes Power Your Gadgets

Posted 10/17/2008 at 1:43pm | by Alex Castle

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Image Credit: Universal Pictures

In another page from the “bizarre gadgets from the Land of the Rising Sun” file, Japanese telecom giant NTT is working on a pair of shoes that generate power as you walk.

Wondering how they work? The shoes have a small reservoir of water in the soles. As the wearer walks, the changing pressure on the shoes causes the water to turn a small turbine also mounted in the soles, creating electricity.

Currently, the shoes can generate 1.2 watts of electricity; which is enough to power an iPod. However, NTT hopes to be able to get the shoes generating 3 watts, enough to run a mobile phone. If they manage that, wearers of the shoes will be able to run their devices indefinitely, at least as long as they can keep walking.

The shoes, which NTT hopes to market by 2010, have no way of storing energy, so if you want to power your phone with your shoes, you’ll have to be on the go.

If generator shoes were marketed where you live, would you buy them? Let us know after the jump.