ideaz for 'enlighted' shoes

Have you seen kids walking around with those shoes, that got a light blinking every time they walk? Cute, right?! But know what, the tiny battery they got inside - they die out soon... those poor sad kids then walk around without flashing steps... I guess it's not that easy to replace batteries that reside inside your shoe sole.

So, here's a small modification for them... first, let's replace the normal batteries with rechargeable lithium-ion (same thing is used in our cell phones) or the latest thing, lithium polymer batteries... The thing with these batteries are that - they are rechargeable, can be made to be quite small yet pump out enough energy for the purpose & cheap...

Now you must be thinking whether I plan to provide battery charger for these shoes or not... the answer is NO! The idea of having shoes plugged with a charger is pretty ridiculous... Here comes the thing - pizzo electric charger!!! If you remember your O'level physics, there's some materials which gives out electricity if they're squeezed and released - no pun intended! Those paper thin speakers in your key chain are actually called pizzo speaker... Our quartz watches follow the same principle - quartz crystals got pizzo electric properties... So, enough of theory, here is the idea: There will be one or more quartzes properly wired, throughout the shoe's sole - so every time someone walks - they will give out a small burst of energy - which will be deposited in the battery... simple, right!!

Now, let's put a tiny light sensor somewhere around the front of the shoe, hidden under some brand tag - measuring the light intensity outside... If it's daylight - the batteries will just get charged when the kid is walking... When it's night, the batteries will power the tiny lights to do the blinking things they do & gets a little bit charged as well...

So, there goes my self charging light flashing shoes for kids who likes it flashy under their feet :)

Have a nice day...