Body-Heat Powered Flashlight
Teenager invents a body heat powered flashlight...
Ann Makosinski, a fifteen-year-old student inventor from Victoria, British Columbia, has created a new type of flashlight powered solely on the heat of your hand. The sheer ambition of her creation is mind boggling, the fact she actually created a working prototype is even more so.
Ann's invention aka the "Hollow Flashlight" runs purely on the heat of your hand. Instead of having to recharge it or swap in a fresh pair of AA's every so often, you literally just need to hold it in your hand for it to start glowing. Makosinski has been entering science fairs since she was in grade six, and has an interest in alternative energy, particularly harvesting all the wasted energy around us. And while researching her favorite topic she came across a device called a peltier tile which produces electricity when cooled on one side, and warmed on the other.
After crunching the numbers, she determined that the warmth from a human hand could produce enough energy via a Peltier tile to power an LED in a flashlight. And after several prototypes, a few dead-ends, and plenty of frustration, she managed to produce two working prototype flashlights, one made of aluminum pipe and the other PVC pipe.
The fine print is that Ann's flashlight doesn't work in temperatures above 50 degrees F. Think back to every time you've lost power and/or needed a flashlight, and then recall how many times it has been under 50 degrees. And then remember the similarly battery-free friction powered flashlight, already useful and brought to market. In short: it's a science-fair triumph, but probably not a cash cow.
The Hollow Flashlight earned Ann a spot as one of the 15 Google Science Fair finalists from around the world. This puts her in the running for the Google Science Fair's grand prize, a $50,000 scholarship, to be announced in September. It's certainly an impressive feat for a fifteen-year-old, particularly if you remember back to what you were doing at that age. Inventing a revolutionary new gadget? Probably not.
