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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Would you still watch your favorite television program if you had to cycle for an hour before you could view it?

Couch potatoes will be horrified, but fresh advances in human-powered technology -- where users power appliances through their own motion -- could one day see a 'workout-to-watch' scenario become reality.

Human power is rapidly gaining in popularity worldwide as businesses seek 'greener' methods of operating.

The profile of the technology is set to receive a further boost this month when a human-powered gym opens in Portland, Oregon, and again in September when the human-powered 'sustainable dance club', Club Watt, opens its doors in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Human power is already being used to run the 'California Fitness' gym in Hong Kong, and to power the recently opened 'Club Surya' in London.
iReport.com: Can you predict what the future will be like?

Beyond all of this, further concepts have been developed for human-powered 'river gyms' for the waterways of New York.

But, how does your sweat and strain turn into power for lights, music and machines?

The general concept is known as energy harvesting, which simply refers to the gathering of energy from one source and applying it to power an object.

Italian inventor Lucien Gambarota, who designed California Fitness's method of storing energy and using it to power lights and music in the gym, told CNN the concept is straightforward.

"One of the oldest types of energy used by people is muscular energy -- so this is nothing new."

Gambarota said machines such as exercycles created a load, used as a counter-force by means of a resistor.

"I disconnected the resistor and started storing the energy into a battery... that is then used as power. It was a way to show there can be very simple solutions. It doesn't always have to be high-tech," he said.

Portland's 'green' gym will have spinning bikes connected to wind-generator motors. The users should generate enough electricity to power the gym's music system or run personal DVD players on the machines, the gym's manager Adam Boesel predicts.

While harnessing the energy from people working out at a gym seems logical, utilising the movement of clubbers at dance clubs is a little more complex.

Two methods have developed -- the first of which is piezoelectricity, used by Club Surya, where crystals in blocks under the dance-floor rub together with the assistance of dancers on the floor. This generates an electrical charge which is then fed into batteries.

A second method using wheels to generate energy under a slightly moving floor will be used at the soon-to-be-opened Club Watt. This model involves coils and magnets which move under the dance-floor to create a charge.

Vera Verkooijen, spokeswoman for Sustainable Dance Club, the company which is behind the floor for Club Watt and produces smaller, portable floors, said the human power would be enough to power about 30 percent of the club's requirements.

Verkooijen admitted the first floors were not very efficient, and said the designers were already working on new models to improve the amount of energy captured.

"This is just the first version. We are willing to take it further," she said.

At Club Surya the power shortfall is made up by solar panels and a wind turbine.

Putting the current buzz aside, how far could this human-powered technology develop? And how widely can it be applied?

Verkooijen told CNN she already had some indications of where the technology was heading.

"We receive a lot of requests from other companies for people who want to use the floors. We get many of these for bus and train stations -- places where there are lots of people."

Lights and display boards at those spaces could be powered applying the same concept as that being used in Club Watt, she said.

Evert Raaijen, technical director of energy conversion company Exendis, felt the technology could have a number of different applications. From pedal-powered computers on bicycles, to self-powered soldiers in militaries, Raaijen predicted human power would be developed widely in coming years.

"I think it's a science field which will be one of the future," he said.

Gambarota believed there were ways human power could be brought into practical use in the home.

He had generated an idea of using human-powered batteries for television or portable video game consoles.

"With so many kids not exercising enough, a battery could be created for these devices so they had to create the energy to use them. The same could be done for television sets.

"We could get the situation where people have to cycle so they can use it," Gambarota said.

Despite these potential developments, human-power is attracting its share of criticism.

Although he shows enthusiasm for the battery project, Gambarota, who now spends much of his time developing micro wind turbines, is sceptical about the future of human-power on a mass-scale.

He raises doubts about the efficiency of human power and questioned its economic viability.

The average amount of power one person could produce going about normal activities on any given day was about one kilowatt-hour (kWh), which only amounted to about € 0.10 worth of electricity, Gambarota said.

"It's a very good marketing tool for businesses, but in terms of economics it does not make sense at all."

The main reason it was being used was because companies wanted to "look green, taste green and smell green", he said.

Raaijen, who was consulted on the Sustainable Dance Floor project, agreed that opting for human-powered technology at present was not a financially-based decision.

"The project (dance floor) in itself doesn't save a lot of energy. It's more of a statement than anything."

Observing recent trends, the sustained drive for 'green energy' should continue to push human-powered technology forward, and despite the limitations to development, human-powered gyms, dance clubs, and maybe even video game consoles are likely to feature strongly in our immediate future.

CNN

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Imagine juicing up your laptop computer or cell phone without plugging it into an electrical socket.

Cut that cord! Intel is in the early stages of trying to modify a laptop to accept wireless power.

That's a luxury that could be provided by wireless power transmission, a concept that has been bandied about for decades but is creeping closer to becoming viable.

Building off work unveiled last year by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, Intel Corp. demonstrated Thursday how to make a 60-watt light bulb glow from an energy source 3 feet away.

The Intel team did it with relatively high efficiency, losing only a quarter of the energy the researchers started with.

"That, to me, is the most striking part about it: transmitting 60 watts at 75 percent efficiency over several feet," said Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner.

"The power pack for your laptop isn't that efficient. ... It's one of those things that's almost too good to be true."

Wireless transmission of electricity makes use of some basic physics. Electric coils that resonate at the same frequency can transmit energy to each other at a distance.

But this technology has a long way to evolve before it becomes a commercial product. In both the MIT and the Intel work, researchers used charging coils far too large for wide-scale use.

Even so, Rattner said Intel is in the early stages of trying to modify a laptop to accept wireless power. One challenge is figuring out how to prevent the electromagnetic field from interfering with the computer's other parts, he said.

Eventually, a homeowner could attach a large transmitter to a wall -- or even bury it inside the wall -- and plant many smaller receivers inside nearby tables and chairs and other pieces of furniture, creating the ultimate in recharging convenience.

MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic said researchers have proposed many intriguing ideas for real-world applications since his group disclosed its breakthrough last year in a scientific journal. Those include the possibility of wirelessly powering pacemakers and artificial hearts.

One of the big challenges in transmitting wireless power is preventing too much energy from escaping while in transit.

The MIT researchers, who call the technology WiTricity, a combination of "wireless" and "electricity," had lit their bulb from 7 feet away with larger charging coils and between 40 percent to 45 percent efficiency.

That means most of the energy didn't make it to the light bulb.

But Soljacic said his group has been able to get up to 90 percent efficiency when the devices were moved to about 3 feet apart, better than the Intel demo.

"You've heard of hybrids, electric cars and vehicles that can run on vegetable oil. But of all the contenders in the quest to produce the ultimate fuel-efficient car, this could be the first one to let you say, "fill it up with air."

The compressed air car planned for the U.S. market would be a six-seater, a New York company says.

That's the idea behind the compressed air car, which backers say could achieve a fuel economy of 106 miles per gallon.

Plenty of skepticism exists, but with many Americans trying to escape sticker shock at the gas pump, the concept is generating buzz.

The technology has been the focus of MDI, a European company founded in 1991 by a French inventor and former race car engineer.

New York-based Zero Pollution Motors is the first firm to obtain a license from MDI to produce the cars in the United States, pledging to deliver the first models in 2010 at a price tag of less than $18,000.

The concept is similar to how a locomotive works, except compressed air -- not steam -- moves the engine's pistons, said Shiva Vencat, vice president of MDI and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors."

CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/index.html
Video Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/index.html#cnnSTCVideo