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Date posted
Funding Agency
(Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Scientists at Michigan State University have designed and fabricated a remote forest-fire detection and alarm system powered by the movement of trees in the wind. The device generates electrical power by harvesting energy from the sporadic movement of the tree branches from which it hangs. It consists of two cylindrical sleeves that fit within one another. As the two sleeves move out of sync, the intermittent loss of contact generates electricity, and the device stores its sporadically generated electrical current in a carbon-nanotube-based micro supercapacitor.
