Tag: PIEZOELECTRIC

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless. Can you ...

Forget about replacing your wireless mouse's batteries every month, and sate that eco-conscious urge that makes you want to ditch the Duracells and go green. Designer Adele Peters has created the Corky mouse, which is powered via piezoelectric elements within the gizmo's body. With every movement, click, and wheel scroll, kinetic energy is created and stored by Corky, eliminating the need for ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Researchers_develop_braille_for_vibrating_touchscreen_device'; In braille, a character is made up of six dots laid out on a two by three matrix -- not something that can really be conveyed using capacitive touchscreen technology. Working with a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, researchers in Finland have developed a method for piezoelectric touchscreen devices that ...

The brainchild of designer Sang-Kyun Park, LightDrops is an umbrella that uses the piezoelectric effect of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to transform falling rain into electricity, which is then used to light LEDs installed on the umbrella's underside. The heavier the rain falls (and the harder it hits the umbrella), the brighter the light shines. Combine it with the solar tie, and who knows? ...