A research team led by Professor Hyung-sik Choi at division of Mechanical and Information Engineering in Korea Maritime University developed an advanced kinetic measurement system for footwear that converts kinetic energy to electric energy.

In future, the system might enable you to charge your mobile phone or MP3 player while walking thanks to shoe-embedded generators.

Users would just have to plug the adapter into their shoes and walk to power their phone, as the walking generators and actuators embedded in shoes create 0.1~0.2 megawatt of electricity for every four to five footsteps, but the researchers work to enhance the efficiency of the shoe-power-harvesting systems to 1 megawatt for the same number of footsteps within years.

That means almost all small-sized digital products can be charged with a six-hour walk.

In addition, the shoe generator can be used for other purpose like tracking bearer’s whereabouts as the shoe’s location is traceable within 100 meters of their position.

From Textually and Korea Times.