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Meet the keyboard that uses kinetic energy from your typing to power itself.
It's green, good-looking and, unfortunately, not real. Yes, the kinetic keyboard known as the 'Dynamo' is just an April's Fool -- albeit a very good one -- from boys toys' emporium iwantoneofthose.com.
While the Photoshop mock-up is quite cool, we can't stop ourselves from pointing out that if it's kinetic-powered then, um, surely it wouldn't need a wire for a power source?
Still, let's not get too hung up on the details. We'd give our right arm for this to be a real green product, though it might slow down our typing speed. Iwantoneofthose.com reckon they'd flog this piece of vapourware for £60; how much would you be willing to fork out for a wireless kinetic-powered keyboard?
Update: there's now a product page on iwantoneofthose.com.
31 March 2008 03:41pm
Surely it would still need a cable for sending the data from your key tapping.
However, I'm not entirely convinced that a kinetic keyboard would save much energy as the amount needed to power a keyboard must be insignificant in comparison to the amount needed to power the rest of the computer.
31 March 2008 03:53pm
The same as a cordless one, that way it would be viable. How about the kinetic mouse?
31 March 2008 04:04pm
I wouldn't mind a green keyboard like that tho. It'd be a cute design for typing in the dark, energy-saving or not
31 March 2008 04:17pm
Hiya Andyface -- for me, the ideal scenario would be for a wireless keyboard that uses Bluetooth or other radio waves to send the signal back to the computer. I've got a wireless keyboard at home and end up changing the batteries all the time, so a real product like this would be really useful (if it generated enough power).
01 April 2008 12:14am
ah, that is indeed true. I stay in the dark ages of wires mostly as having to change batteries frequently can get expensive.
01 April 2008 11:13am
the whole premise of this device wasnt that it powered itself but that iwhen ou were using it it "cut in" above the power supply thus powering the whole computer for you... i would say this was the most obvious problem with the device... that and that the power went in via a usb of course.... shame really... i thought it looked awesome
01 April 2008 01:19pm
hmmm, there's no way kinetic power is ever going to power anything as big as a computer. Nokia has ruled it out for mobile phones so computers are a definite no-no. Keyboards, maybe.
26 April 2008 12:03am
Thats would be sample of real Green-IT ;)
hm... why is this pratical Idea not real? The kinetic keyboard inputs can "feed" an accu-cell.
These Patents are no joke (?) long Time there ...
Cordless Keyboard with Electric Power Generator (IBM)
http://www.priorartdatabase.com/IPCOM/000106470
Typing power (Adrian Crisan)
A keyboard power generator provides a plurality of keys with one
or more magnets mounted thereon
http://www.google.com/patents?id=kXEWAAAAEBAJ&dq=5911529
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