Birds may power devices

BOISE – Small, migratory birds likely expend a lot of energy in flight. Now researchers with TenXsys Inc. are trying to discover if the steady beating of wings releases enough energy to, say, power an electronic tracking device.

Funded with an $80,000 federal grant, TenXsys Inc. students at Boise State University and officials with the Raptor Research Center are trying to harness the kinetic energy from small birds and other animals to power electronic devices.

Company president Frank Riskey said that if the study proves successful, the concept could be expanded to humans and various handheld devices.

“It irks me that I have to plug in my cell phone and PDA for recharging after lugging them around all day,” said Riskey, a computer scientist. “I think there is sufficient energy available to recharge the cell phone as it is moved about while clipped to my belt as I walk. Imagine if all you had to do was walk around for your cell phone to get charged up.”

No birds will be hooked up to power-generating machines, researchers said. Instead, the study will look into whether the monitoring devices already used on birds to track their movements can be powered by the movements themselves.

Eliminating or reducing the need for batteries could help create a new generation of small, long-lasting monitoring devices for use in studying threatened, endangered, or poorly understood animal species, said Riskey.

TenXsys’ initial study will determine how much power is generated by animal movement. Then the company will try to develop a device that would transfer that energy from the bird to a monitor. From there, he said, it is not a big leap to imagine other devices that can harness the energy of small movements.

“It would make sense that just the little motions you make walking around would generate enough energy to charge the phone on your belt,” he said. “It could work with hearing aids, pacemakers and other medical devices.”

While capturing energy from movement has happened on large scales — such as river water passing through a dam — only recently has the technology on a smaller scale been available, Riskey said.

“There’s been a revolution in microelectromechanical systems,” he said. “Now they’re smaller, and that allows this type of research to happen.”