Human Powered - Autonomous Energy Reclamation Systems

By Hugh Darrow

Excerpt from an article first published in The New Cybernetics & Robotics Journal (Feb/March Edition, 2016).

But of course, it's pointless designing these kinds of desktop wonders if the actual device is incapable of operating in the real world, without recourse to an infinite supply of battery packs or power generation vectors. What powers the human machine? That's where must look in order to power the next generation of cybernetic augmentation technologies - until such times as we can create small, light weight energy cells capable of running far beyond the lifetime of our products, we fall short.

An energy conversion device is the answer; on the scale we're capable of manufacturing now, I'm confident we can create a unit small enough to be implanted, powerful enough to make the best use of chemical energy found in a human body. We do this by mimicking the human digestive process, improving upon the natural method of nutrient conversion from, say a liquid slurry - perhaps some form of organic protein matrix - directly to chemical potential; the capability also exists to derive neurochemical-specific energy signifiers.