In our modern world today, hundreds of unique ideas and innovations are sprouting; a beer can keyboard, a voice activated coffee machine, almost anything is possible. Recently, a very strange invention has been developed, in the form of urine-powered wearables.
According to Digital Trends, a group of scientists from the University of West of England in Bristol has come up with a way to re-use human liquid waste, by developing the world's high tech foot warmers powered by pee. The team incorporated microbial fuel cell technology into their socks, meaning bacteria will turn urine into electricity.
You are probably thinking how gross and messy it would be to be walking around with socks filled with urine, but the scientists created this wearable with more sophistication. The urine will be placed in silicon tubes located on the heel part, which lead to the microbial fuel cells or MFCs. When the user walks, the pressure on the heel sends the liquid waste to the MFCs, yielding electrical energy.
Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, head of the team that worked on this innovation, shares why they have come up with such invention. He says, "We wanted the system to be entirely self-sufficient, running only on human power - using urine as fuel and the action of the foot as the pump. This work opens up possibilities of using waste for powering portable and wearable electronics."
The wearable has gotten different reactions from netizens, but other scientists seem to think it is a great discovery. University Technology Corporation researcher Heather Luckcraft has expressed his opinion on the device, "There is a boom in wearable electronics, and the ability to make biological fuel cells that are flexible and wearable takes the application to the next level."
MFC technology looks promising, and the team behind the urine powered foot warmers believes that this could open up more possibilities for other wearable electronics.