According to an article in this month’s Science Journal, researchers at Simon Frasier University in British Columbia have developed a new technology to generate electricity from the natural motion of walking. Assistant professor of kinesiology Max Donelan and other team members say their biomechanical energy harvester promises to revolutionize the way people charge the batteries that power all sorts of mobile devices, like laptops, cell phones, and emergency rescue gear.

The energy harvester, which straps across a knee joint just like an athletic knee brace, can generate up to five watts of electricity with little physical effort. And one minute of brisk walking can generate 13 watts — enough to support 30 minutes of cell-phone use.

In much the same way that hybrid-electric cars recycle the power from braking, the wearable device harvests energy from the end of a walker’s step, when the muscles are working to slow the movement of the leg, Donelan said.

Bionic Power Indeed

The technology has already been spun off for further development to a new company called Bionic Power, with plans to make the energy harvester for military, medical and consumer applications. Though the prototype device weighs about 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds), Donelan believes commercial production units will end up weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 pounds).

“I think the early adopters will be people who are away from the electric grid — like the hikers and emergency rescue workers who don’t know when they will be able to recharge their batteries,” said Donelan in a telephone interview. “Right now they end up carrying around large amounts of batteries, but they won’t need to if they can treat themselves as the juice.”

Bionic Power is taking a double-barreled approach by initially tackling military and medical applications. For example, soldiers in the field heavily rely on batteries for communications…