A rocking chair's movement can be used to charge portable devices according to designer Ryan Klinger. He has created Empower, a rocking chair that uses kinetic energy to generate the power needed to charge devices which can be plugged directly into the chair.
The concept rocking chair is designed to take advantage of a common but inefficient human-environment interaction. The chairs could be grouped and used at airports, libraries, offices and private homes.
The chair can be transformed from a single chair into a bench and won second place at the Greener Gadgets design competition 2010.
A second concept chair design is that of Indonesian designer Rizki Tarisa who has created Go, a multifunctional chair including pedals which, when turned, produce energy.
Combining the functions of a lounge chair, exercise bike and desktop into a single unit, the Go also allows users to browse the internet and listen to music whilst pedalling for power.
It is reminiscent of the use of vehcile shock absorbers to harvest energy electrodynamically from irregular rocking, work that is being carried out at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT.
Images source: Greener Gadgets and Rizki Tarisa
For more read : Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2010-2020
