New Tech Transforms Sound Into Electricity

[Jabberwock xeno]

We'd better keep reruns of Dragon Ball to a minimum lest we overload the system. Why the heavy breathing and panting alone could supply enough energy to run the escapist for a month!

WHAT DOES THE SCOOTER SA-

Ahem.

But don't we already have this tech?

 

[Aeshi]

1. Put some of these in [INSERT POLITICAL BUILDING HERE].
2. Infinite Energy Achieved.
3. Profit.

 

[dfcrackhead]

Anyone remember Monsters Inc. ? I do, and now the technology exists for the scary monsters in my closet to pop out, scare me, and then use my screams to power their city of demons

 

[McMullen]

Sound doesn't strike me as having a high enough energy density to offset the cost of these power generators, unless you installed them in places where people regularly need ear protection. To my knowledge, sound is usually in the same category as waste heat for most processes, since it's too weak and diffused to do anything useful.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

Sound doesn't strike me as having a high enough energy density to offset the cost of these power generators, unless you installed them in places where people regularly need ear protection. To my knowledge, sound is usually in the same category as waste heat for most processes, since it's too weak and diffused to do anything useful.

This is true, this is only proof of concept of technology, to be put into practical use is going to take a lot longer.

 

[Jadak]

We'd better keep reruns of Dragon Ball to a minimum lest we overload the system. Why the heavy breathing and panting alone could supply enough energy to run the escapist for a month!

WHAT DOES THE SCOOTER SA-

Ahem.

But don't we already have this tech?

That's electricity creating sound, this article is sound creating electricity.

 

[Jadak]

Ignore my Double Post

 

[Jakub324]

With the amount my friend shouts at Black Ops, he'll be able to power the entire town, now.

 

[Mortuorum]

[HEADING=1]To everyone who thinks this is the same thing as a microphone![/HEADING]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone

A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal.

Basically speaking, microphones take electricity from their power source and encrypt the sound into that electricity, sending it out as an output.
tl;dr Microphones consume energy and output sound in electrical form.

Whereas this new invention takes the energy from the sound and transforms it into electricity. It does not output sound encrypted into electricity, but rather simply electricity.
tl'dr This invention consumes sound and outputs electricity.

Piezoelectric microphones create electricity.

In the article you link above, scroll down to here and check out the first sentence:

A crystal microphone or piezo microphone uses the phenomenon of piezoelectricity - the ability of some materials to produce a voltage when subjected to pressure - to convert vibrations into an electrical signal.

(Italics are mine.)

 

[DasDestroyer]

Piezoelectric microphones create electricity.

In the article you link above, scroll down to here and check out the first sentence:

A crystal microphone or piezo microphone uses the phenomenon of piezoelectricity - the ability of some materials to produce a voltage when subjected to pressure - to convert vibrations into an electrical signal.

(Italics are mine.)

First of all, that isn't a normal microphone, is it? Whereas my rant was directed at people thinking that ordinary microphones do that. Second of all, from what I gather, the device in the OP is essentially a buffed-up piezoelectric microphone.
[The device] consists of a piezoelectric element to produce the sound waves, a magnetic material to generate a spin current, and a three-layered metal structure to detect the spin current. By producing the sound waves, we inject a spin current from the magnetic material into the metal layers. And by using a phenomenon called the reverse spin Hall effect in the metal, we convert the spin current to an electrical voltage. In this research, we detected the spin current by measuring the voltage.

 

[Denmarkian]

First of all, that isn't a normal microphone, is it? Whereas my rant was directed at people thinking that ordinary microphones do that. Second of all, from what I gather, the device in the OP is essentially a buffed-up piezoelectric microphone.

Uhh, hi. Sound Engineer and Electrical engineer here.

I just wanted to clarify some of your erroneous statements, both with this reply, and your original post linking to Wikipedia.

EVERY transducer is a "normal microphone" by virtue of the fact that it is a device that converts sound into an electrical signal.

A passive microphone is, as someone already mentioned, a transducer that works like a loudspeaker in reverse: a permanent magnet attached perpendicularly to the center of a flexible membrane. Sound waves strike the membrane and create sympathetic vibrations that move the magnet in and out of a wire coil creating an induced current in the wire.

Now, this induced current is only useful for transmitting information, not power. This is because the current is an alternating signal, so there is almost no way to harvest this energy for storage purposes. If you were to connect the microphone cable to an AC/DC adapter, the current energy developed by the microphone would be lost in the transformer.


A condenser microphone is what everyone is incorrectly claiming to be "a microphone".

A condenser microphone uses the property of current generated from oscillating capacitance, which is much easier to measure at higher frequencies. The capacitance is achieved by placing a gold plate next to a piece of mylar coated with gold on one side. In order to maintain a voltage across the capacitor, that voltage needs to be supplied from a source. This is the +48V "Phantom power" that is sent up the microphone cable along the signal wires.


A piezoelectric microphone is a small scale condenser microphone with a PERMANENT voltage charge stored on the stationary side of the capacitor. So, it does not require a power supply.



So, yes, these research scientists are using a microphone. This is not new. Everyone who is claiming that the first part of the "big science" block quote in the article is explaining how a microphone works is absolutely correct.

The important part is that they have been able to convert the AC signal developed by the microphone efficiently enough to get a usable voltage potential.

This. Is. Big.

EDIT: Ooh! Ooh!

If you want a really good analogy for what this is:

This is like an inductive charger that uses the AC generated by a microphone instead of the AC from the power company.

Seriously. Big.

 

[Mortuorum]

First of all, [a piezoelectric microphone] isn't a normal microphone, is it? Whereas my rant was directed at people thinking that ordinary microphones do that. Second of all, from what I gather, the device in the OP is essentially a buffed-up piezoelectric microphone.
[...]

Then we are in agreement.

EDIT: I am not a sound engineer like Denmarkian, so if he says it's a big deal, I'm prepared to believe him. I still find it hard to believe the low energy density of sound waves will ever turn this into anything other than a novelty.

 

[Draconalis]

"New Tech Transforms Sound Into Electricity"
Ummm, is it called "microphone"?

That was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title.