These Boots Were Made for Charging...
Kirt's Cogitations™ #52

RF Cafe University "Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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These Boots Were Made for Charging...

SRI International is developing a new kind of boot for our armed forces. Funded by a DARPA contract, the heel of the boot has layered polymers in honeycomb form that generate electricity as the soldier walks. At normal walking pace, the prototypes generate about half a watt, but two watts is not far off. Some day in the near future 20-pound battery packs for personal communications and navigation gear will be a thing of the past.

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...