Mobile charger via walk

As the power requirements for microelectronics continue decreasing, environmental energy sources can begin to replace batteries in certain wearable subsystems. In this paper we report on a shoe power generator based on a micro structured piezoelectric polymer transducer. The properties of the transducer match regular shoe filling and it is designed to harness energy from human walk without affecting the user's gait. The generated power is regulated with a self-powered dc/dc conversion circuit that achieves a high 65% efficiency for converting the high piezo electrically generated voltage (130 V) to a low voltage (4 V) suitable for portable electronic devices.