The new soldier will keep on ticking
This is intriguing. The Defense Department is holding a $1 million prize competition to find a solution to reduce battery weight and size in a typical soldier's load out. The average soldier carries 20-40 lbs of batteries, more than their ammunition. The winning prototype (doesn't have to be a final product), must be wearable and weigh no more than 8.8 Kgs and be capable of a sustained power output of 20 watts/day for 4 days.
This has very interesting ramifications for the personal computer and associated gadgetry industries. Most of us that are "wired", such as myself, carry far too many chargers and batteries when we go somewhere. I, for instance, currently use a Blackberry (w/extra battery), MacBook Pro (w/extra battery), handheld Garmin GPS, video iPod, handheld digitial tape recorder, wi-fi network finder, bluetooth headset and easily half a dozen interchangable power cords. It would be nice to consolidate them into a single powerpack. A single charging station that weighed less than 1.5 lbs would be nice, too.
The really interesting inventions would be long-life batteries that would power a digital gadget for weeks and some day, wireless power.
Posted on July 19, 2007
