Sometimes all
you need is a proof of concept to get things rolling. I do not think there is an easy patent here
but there is certainly a very clear direction.
The point about all this is that the possible components are ready to be
organized into a valuable product able to reach everywhere.
Imagine now a rechargeable battery, a solar trickle charger, and a heat converter to support it as well. Then a battery has the potential of a strong light as well as a heat based source for a minimum light output. This all works.
Recall that our
eyes adjust very well to a very low light level. Yet there comes a point in which although you
are able to see the light emitted by bacteria in rotting loam, nothing else is
visible. Thus a low illumination light
will work just fine once your eyes have adjusted. Combine the ability to hit full illumination
and you have as much flexibility as needed.
Even as is, it
needs to be cleaned up and put out there just for the low illumination. It is directed light and it can be played
over objects to establish what you are seeing.
Bravo!
Teen Invents
Flashlight That Could Change The World
By Andrew LampardFebruary 25, 2014 1:21 PM
Ann Makosinski was just another teenager with
another science project when she joined her local science fair in Victoria,
Canada, last year. Her invention, a flashlight that is powered solely from hand
heat, took second place at the competition.
Ann, 16, and her parents, both of whom are HAM radio
operators and like to fiddle with electronics, were satisfied with that result.
“It’s a very simple project,” said Arthur
Makosinski, Ann’s father. “It has four electrical components. Let’s move on and
do something different.”
But had Ann left her project in Victoria, situated
just 25 miles north of Washington State, the world may have missed out on a
light source that doesn’t use batteries, solar power or wind energy.
Think about that for a moment: a flashlight that
shines for as long as you hold onto it. No more scrambling for and chucking away
AA batteries. It could have an immediate impact on more than 1.2 billion people
-- one-fifth of the world’s population -- who, according to the World Bank,
lack regular access to electricity.
Stunningly, no one on record has thought to use
thermoelectric technology to power a flashlight. But for Ann, peltier tiles,
which produce an electrical current when opposite sides are heated and cooled
at the same time, were a convenient solution to a friend’s study problem.
Two years ago, Ann, who is half-Filipino, was
corresponding with a friend of hers in the Philippines who didn’t have
electricity. According to Ann, her friend couldn’t complete her homework and
was failing in school.
“That was the inspiration for my project.” said Ann,
“I just wanted to help my friend in the Philippines and my flashlight was a
possible solution.”
Ann got to work. She remembered hearing human beings
described as walking 100-volt light bulbs: “I thought, why not body heat? We
have so much heat radiating out of us and it’s being wasted.”
After a few prototypes, she unveiled her “hollow
flashlight,” so named because it has a hollow aluminum tube at its core that
cools the sides of the peltier tiles attached to the flashlight’s cylinder. The
other side is warmed by heat from a hand gripping the flashlight.
Ann spent several months designing the flashlight
and figuring out its voltage conversion. Much has been written online about
powering a flashlight with peltier tiles, but those devices used heat from
candles and blow torches. Ann’s patent-pending prototype relies on hand warmth
only and required that she make her own transformer, among other
difference-making factors.
Art Makosinski remembers his surprise when Ann figured
out how to light the flashlight’s bulbs at 20 millivolts: “I didn’t believe it,
I had to inspect the circuit. I said what did you do here, do you have a hidden
battery on the other side?”
At the behest of Kate Paine, her ninth grade marine
biology teacher at St. Michaels University School, Ann submitted her flashlight
into the 2013 Google Science Fair last spring. She promptly forget all about
it. Thousands of kids apply from around the world. She said she didn’t think
she had a chance.
A few months later, in September 2013, Ann was named
a finalist in her age group. She travelled to Google’s headquarters in Mountain
View, Calif., to present alongside equally impressive projects, like a cure for
the common cold and a robotic exoskeleton. “I didn’t expect to win anything,”
she said.
At the science fair’s gala night, Ann and Art
mingled among top Google engineers, eminent scientists and some of the most
innovative kids on the planet. Hers was the last name they expected to be
called out the winner for her age group. When it was, Art almost dropped his
camera. Ann floated to the stage as if welded to a conveyer belt; her face was
frozen in shock.
Her prize was a trophy made out of Legos, a visit to
the Lego Group headquarters in Denmark, and a $25,000 scholarship.
“I still have some of the same confetti that rained
down,” said Ann. “Just an amazing experience and probably something I won’t
experience ever again.”
When Ann returned to Victoria, she received a
standing ovation at her high school’s Monday morning assembly. In the months
since, she has given three TEDx talks and appeared on the “Tonight Show
Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
"I think it’s a lesson that children can
innovate," said Art Makosinski. "With the right incentive and
environment, they can be quite innovative."
Many people have asked where she wants to attend
university, expecting to her to name the likes of Stanford or MIT. Ann said
she’s not thinking that far ahead; she needs to get through the eleventh grade
first.
And then there’s the business of securing her
flashlight’s patent and tweaking the prototype for market. At roughly 24
lumens, Ann’s flashlight’s brightness falls shy of commercial flashlights,
which output dozens if not hundreds of lumens.
Of her efforts to increase her flashlight’s voltage
efficiency, she said, “I want to make sure my flashlight is available to those
who really need it.”
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