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In last ten years the number of gadgets we carry every day has been drastically increased. Take a look at your jacket pockets and your pants, I bet you have cell phone there. Some of you have iPod, someone has a Palm hidden somewhere and more artistic types out there have a digital camera with them wherever they go. While cell phones of today are trying to be all those gadgets in one, we still carry more then just one small piece of technology with us.

That being said, we need energy. Recharging all those power hungry gizmos can be a nightmare sometimes, so the good guys from Simon Fraser University developed another gadget. This one generates electricity from the natural motion of walking and will be more then enough to satisfy our battery power needs.

The BEH, short from Biomechanical Energy Harvester, uses the energy from our muscles in the moment they are trying to slow the movement of our leg. When we are making a step, BEH turns on the power generator at the end of the swing phase, just before the foot hits the ground. Using that principle, we can collect 5 watts of electricity in one minute when we have two devices - each for one leg, of course.

That amount of electricity is enough to power our cell phone for 30 minutes! If we walk faster, we can create up to 13 watts of energy, which tells you that you can actually recharge your phone while you walk 100% of the time.

The device is very useful, as you can see. The thing is, it’s still a little bulky and it will take some time before it can be used with full comfort. The creators are predicting a 18 month period to perfect a slim-line version of the knee brace.

Then it would be more comfortable and practical to use more gadgets, one of them being electrical jacket like this one:

An electric jacket for women that will drive of everyone who touches jacket’s surface. You can activate this defensive piece of clothing with a simple touch of a button and a 80,000 volts of low amperage electric current will drive your attacker away for sure. You definitely don’t want to leave something like that without power.

Next thing that could be powered with the new BEH are these electric pants. There will no longer be lines like “Freezing my ass off” and “I can’t feel my legs”.

Buy yourself a pair of these pants and they will heat your bottom and your ankles in a fight against cold weather. Then use a Biomechanical Energy Harvester to recharge the batteries while you walk. Lines from above will be replaced with lines like “Did you recharge your pants, honey?” or “Are you sure you have enough power in your sneakers?” The future will definitely be interesting place to be, don’t you think?