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Now this is in the range of the bizarro and somewhat cool but I could see a potential application for Outdoor Signage.
The egg-heads at the University of Utah have found a (better) way of converting heat thrown off by things like latops by using thermoacoustic engines. They take the heat, convert it to a sound as loud as a rock concert and then convert it to electricity.
And they’re the size of a matchbox.
Obviously the tech will get better and the sound can be compressed so that it can’t be heard or more effectively “exhausted”.
This is a ways off as a commercial application but forget laptops! Ever had the pleasure of standing next to the fan exhaust vent for one of those monster outdoor Digital Signs? You may as well be sticking your head into the exhaust of a small rocket made in Uzbekistan.
Where this could be advantageous is to cities or sign companies that have to pay for the energy draw required by Digital Signage to show the pretty pictures. If you could recycle that lost energy, you could significantly decrease your consumption costs (and be green at the same time)
I’ve already heard of a few stories where Outdoor Digital Signage was “shut down” because the energy draws were too massive and being paid for by the city/municipality.
The original article was from a couple of days ago on InformationWeek and I just saw it on Engadget
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