Written by Desh

A team of mechanical engineering students from the State University of New York has found a way of recovering the vibrational energy from vehicles as they speed over road bumps. Currently, they are developing a regenerative shock absorber that converts this energy into electricity. Their 1:2 scale prototype generates 2-8W of power in usual driving conditions at a speed of about 45mph. If the same mechanism is applied to all four wheels, the car may go on to generate up to 256W of electricity.

Written by Desh

Just a day after introducing you to Self-sufficient Streetlights designed by Natalia Romanova, now, we wish to make your interiors livelier than they were ever before with LED Pegs conceived by the same designer. Dubbed as light PEG, the wireless tree-shaped charger with eight clip-on chargeable pegs, which further contain six LED bulbs in them, imparts a green light for 4-5 hours when charged for 30-40 minutes.

Written by Yuka Yoneda

Want eyesight that would make the Terminator jealous? Well, in a few years, you might be able to say hasta la vista to your normal old contact lenses and hello to the solar powered augmented lenses that University of Washington professor Babak Amir Parviz and his students are working on. The technology would embed hundreds of semitransparent LEDs onto a thin lens, letting wearers experience augmented reality right through their eyes. And the applications – from health monitoring to just plain bionic sight – could be endless.

Written by Ariel Schwartz

It sounds like a strange combination: zinc oxide crystals, water, and noise pollution. But scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that the mix can efficiently produce hydrogen without the need for a dirty catalyst like oil. By submerging a new type of zinc oxide crystal in water, the scientists claim to be able to harvest hydrogen using vibrations from passing traffic and crashing waves.