Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 28

Photo Source: Wikia
WEARABLE TECH
Harnessing
Electric Power from
Women’s Boobs
O
k! You think I’m pulling
your leg right? Women’s
breasts, a source of ener-
gy? No WAY! Well hear
me out here! A woman
from San Francisco –
Adrienne, wondered
if her natural D cup impediments
to her love of sport could be put to
some other good use, “they will ful-
fill their intended function for about
three of the 70 years that I have
them” she says. Fair point if you
think about it! So she thought why
not “put her girls to work”? Why not
indeed? Since human powered de-
vices are emerging across the globe.
Thus began a journey of discovery
for Adrienne.

The physics of breast
motion has been researched since
the mid 1980’s; and LaJean Lawson,
a former professor of exercise
science at Oregon State University
had discovered a D cup can move as
much as 35 inches during exercise!
This motion would be enough to
power an mp3 player or smart-
phone! However smaller cup sizes
would generate less motion thus
less power. Other solutions could
incorporate solar panels or mini
28
rotary generators. These rotary
generators are used in “Lightening
packs” backpacks used on long hikes
that can generate up to 7 watts of
energy (enough to power small LED
lights). But these options seemed all
too cumbersome. Then Adrienne
discovered the work of Professor
Zhong Lin Wan of Georgia State
University.

Prof. Wan is developing a
fabric made of nanowires 1/1,000th
the width of a human hair. They rub
together in the fabric converting
friction energy into an electrical
charge. Unbelievably, Prof. Wan
believes this technology will be
available within the next 5 years!
The big catch? Washing. The dis-
tance between nanowires has to be
at a constant for them to