Teen's brilliant Invention

[Hum]

Ann Makosinski was just another teenager with another science project when she joined her local science fair in Victoria, Canada, last year. Her invention, a flashlight that is powered solely from hand heat, took second place at the competition.

Ann, 16, and her parents, both of whom are HAM radio operators and like to fiddle with electronics, were satisfied with that result.

?It?s a very simple project,? said Arthur Makosinski, Ann?s father. ?It has four electrical components. Let?s move on and do something different.?

But had Ann left her project in Victoria, situated just 25 miles north of Washington State, the world may have missed out on a light source that doesn?t use batteries, solar power or wind energy.

Think about that for a moment: a flashlight that shines for as long as you hold onto it. No more scrambling for and chucking away AA batteries. It could have an immediate impact on more than 1.2 billion people -- one-fifth of the world?s population -- who, according to the World Bank, lack regular access to electricity.

Stunningly, no one on record has thought to use thermoelectric technology to power a flashlight. But for Ann, peltier tiles, which produce an electrical current when opposite sides are heated and cooled at the same time, were a convenient solution to a friend?s study problem.

Two years ago, Ann, who is half-Filipino, was corresponding with a friend of hers in the Philippines who didn?t have electricity. According to Ann, her friend couldn?t complete her homework and was failing in school.

?That was the inspiration for my project.? said Ann, ?I just wanted to help my friend in the Philippines and my flashlight was a possible solution.?

Ann got to work. She remembered hearing human beings described as walking 100-volt light bulbs: ?I thought, why not body heat? We have so much heat radiating out of us and it?s being wasted.?

After a few prototypes, she unveiled her ?hollow flashlight,? so named because it has a hollow aluminum tube at its core that cools the sides of the peltier tiles attached to the flashlight?s cylinder. The other side is warmed by heat from a hand gripping the flashlight.

Ann spent several months designing the flashlight and figuring out its voltage conversion. Much has been written online about powering a flashlight with peltier tiles, but those devices used heat from candles and blow torches. Ann?s patent-pending prototype relies on hand warmth only and required that she make her own transformer, among other difference-making factors.

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[Brandon H Supervisor]

i had heard about this awhile ago. it's really awesome & quite surprising that no one had thought of it sooner

[GotBored]

Thermal energy from you hands I wouldn't expect to give enough heat to power a flashlight, but I guess today's low-powered LEDs dont need much.

 

Good on her for coming up with the idea, but I'm curious as to what won first place if she came second?

[Pam14160]

. . .and today's youth are so stupid; give me a break. . .you go young lady. . . :D

[Ian S.]

So it draws energy from your hands, does it draw energy from the heat in the air? Will the flashlight randomly come on in the desert? Will it draw so much heat it cools down your hands? This seems like a great idea though!

[Mandosis]

Wow. That is really clever and would be a great thing to have in a survival kit.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

So it draws energy from your hands, does it draw energy from the heat in the air? Will the flashlight randomly come on in the desert? Will it draw so much heat it cools down your hands? This seems like a great idea though!

Requires a temperature differential to work so it probably won't work well in certain climates. In general, it doesn't output enough lumens to be viable in real situations which is why we haven't ever seen a commercial application of such things.

[Draconian Guppy]

Kickstarter anyone?

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

Kickstarter anyone?

I wouldn't recommend it because you aren't going to get something that is stunningly more efficient than what she used. Thermoelectric generation is not efficient in the slightest in practice (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator) and that's a science and not an engineering issue (at this point) so crowd funding won't speedup the process toward a usable/viable solution.

[Draconian Guppy]

I wouldn't recommend it because you aren't going to get something that is stunningly more efficient than what she used. Thermoelectric generation is not efficient in the slightest in practice (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator) and that's a science and not an engineering issue (at this point) so crowd funding won't speedup the process toward a usable/viable solution.

But it will help me con people out of their money :shifty:  lol 

[Nagisan]

Requires a temperature differential to work so it probably won't work well in certain climates. In general, it doesn't output enough lumens to be viable in real situations which is why we haven't ever seen a commercial application of such things.

According to the article it has an output of 24 lumens.....which with some quick research is about equivalent to a 4 watt night light (though this depends on many other factors). So bright enough to do homework/read a book, but it's not going to light up the trail you're walking on.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

According to the article it has an output of 24 lumens.....which with some quick research is about equivalent to a 4 watt night light (though this depends on many other factors). So bright enough to do homework/read a book, but it's not going to light up the trail you're walking on.

Yup, it pretty much looked like that in the video imo. Though, the efficiency is probably less than 10% so the output could probably be increased by 5-7x assuming magic (or major scientific breakthroughs). Though, why not just go for a hand cranked flashlight that charges a battery. That seems like a much better alternative for an emergency since it doesn't rely on body heat or ambient temperature to generate electricity.

[exotoxic]

How do you find it again if you drop it??

[blerk]

Wow. That is really clever and would be a great thing to have in a survival kit.

Unless you really need to stay warm  :p 

[Hum]

I wonder if this could be adapted to charge cell phones, MP3 players.

 

I also wonder if this could supply some power in warm climates, simply from the heat of the air ...

[cork1958]

Just read this story on Yahoo news before coming here.

 

Definitely cool :)

[yakumo]

So it draws energy from your hands, does it draw energy from the heat in the air? Will the flashlight randomly come on in the desert? Will it draw so much heat it cools down your hands? This seems like a great idea though!

Hahaha, just because it's power source is not traditional doesn't mean it won't have an on/off switch :)

[Arachno 1D]

You could in essence make either a larger version in a vest or backpack mounted system that would charge an item whilst walking much the same way as the solar powered back packs work but using the differential between the body heat and the surrounding air.

 

[Nagisan]

I wonder if this could be adapted to charge cell phones, MP3 players.

 

I also wonder if this could supply some power in warm climates, simply from the heat of the air ...

Doesn't really provide enough output to charge a battery, or at least not enough to bother spending the money on developing something to charge a battery.

 

As already stated, there has to be a difference in ambient temperature and the temperature of the heat source to work, so it won't work in some climates.

[leovanham]

Maybe 1 hand is not enough to being brighter than a night bulb currently, what about 2 hands? Like when you need more light, you just grab it with your other hand as well.

 

I'm not a physics major, but if 1 hand powers 24 lumen, would 2 hands give a light output of 48 lumen? 

[Hum]

How do you find it again if you drop it??

You have a 2nd flashlight in your pocket --- silly guy.

[Buttus]

awesome idea!   but, no wearing gloves when using it, so might not be so great for cold climates...

 

i'd buy one