No Original Ideas

A month or two ago, while communiting with thousands of others on the elevated walkways that cover much of Hong Kong’s Central district I thought about how one could harness the power of all those feet pounding the floor. In theory, that’s a lot of energy the walkways are absorbing. If it could be harnessed, then perhaps it could provide power for walkway lighting or fans. I wasn’t sure if the idea was realistic or not and I didn’t do much other than share the thought with a few friends.

Well, looks like my idea wasn’t all that original after all: Some MIT students are proposing a crowd farm for harnessing the power of large groups of people. Again, not sure if it’s practical, but it’s an interesting idea.