This past February, the Greener Gadgets conference took place in New York City. The conference is produced by the Consumer Electronics Association and is meant to highlight the latest innovations and issues in green technology. I’ve never been to the conference but I do enjoy reading about one part which is the Greener Gadgets Design Competition. This year, there were eighteen finalists, whose entries ranged from kinetic chargers to smart grid-like home management devices. The winner of the competition was decided during the conference on February 25th by a panel of judges and a live audience.
This year’s winner was the AUG/Living Goods Program, a mobile application designed to encourage purchase of local goods by providing immediate information about the producer of the goods to the consumer. The application relies on the maintenance of a product database whose entries would be looked up by the bar code. Information that would be stored are items such as: distance that the product has traveled, whether the item is in season, and producer profiles. The designers’ goal is to reward local producers by empowering consumers with the information they need to make informed buying decisions.
There were several other entries which garnered attention:
- Roller Gen: a kinetic charger which converts the energy generated by riding a bicycle to charge a battery, which can then be used to charge your cell phone.
- Corky: a wireless mouse that charges up from the movement of the mouse itself!
- Automan 500 subwoofer: a home A/V subwoofer made from recycled tires, designed to look like a stylish ottoman.
- BioCharger180 & Fair Energy Clock: These are two device chargers that save energy by stopping the charging activity at a preset time.
There are several innovative entries that are fun to read about, so I encourage anyone to head over to the Greener Gadgets site to check them out.
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