Pedal-Powered Laptops Tested in Afghanistan

By Jane McEntegart
published

Pedaled-powered laptops for school children in Afghanistan.

We've always been a fan of the OLPC initiative. It's hard not to like an organisation that works so hard to help educate children in developing countries but what we like most are the innovative solutions the OLPC team comes up with when faced with problems.

This week OLP Afghanistan, which has been running for about a year, announced a few technical developments, one being a prototype for a pedal-powered version of XO laptop. Previously, machines deployed in areas where power is an issue have been charged via a hand-crank. However, OLPC Afghanistan has taken the Freeplay hand crank and connected it to the feet, which can more easily provide power. OLPC says doing so should make it much easier to deploy the laptop to countryside / rural areas.

Check out the video below.

For more on what OLPC Afghanistan is up to, check out the rest of the blog post by clicking here.

Jane McEntegart
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sstym
    "We've always been a been of the OLPC initiative"
    I assume you meant "Been a fan"

    Anyhoo.

    Good idea. I can also see that as a helpful tool for overweight kids in industrialized nations.
    Reply
  • Ha. This belongs in America, not Afghanistan. Gotta get this fat country in shape.
    Reply
  • socrates047
    i think this might cure internet addiction, for kids who are obese, if we were to go with the stereotype of how internet addicts are obese.
    Reply
  • wildwell
    These are awesome. We definitely need them here too. Lower your body-mass index and your carbon footprint! Ha ha.
    Reply
  • dannyaa
    I've actually thought of getting one of those pedal powered exercise bikes for doing long sessions of desktop work... can this work to store a charge as well? It would be cool if kids could plug it into their bicycle and as they pedal to school or wherever, it would charge the battery
    Reply
  • Boxa786
    Soon it will be Pedal-Powered Mobile phones.

    It would be better (damn posted before me), if this was used to power huge battery that would store the power till its needed, such as when areas such as afghanistan, where having power 24/7 is a known problem, can just easily connect their electric devices to this battery, during a power outage.

    Ofc the alternative is a generator.
    Reply
  • athreex
    Nice idea.

    I don't think you'll have to pedal too much, The XOs don't have significant power consumption.

    wildwellThese are awesome. We definitely need them here too. Lower your body-mass index and your carbon footprint! Ha ha.
    +1. Haha..I could imagine this tech being implemented on today's high end notebooks. Buy a Core i 920XM with Sli GTX 280M + 640 GB x 2 in RAID 0, and a huge 12 cell battery, excellent for two hours of juice and a pedal system for recharging.

    In less than a week, no magic fat-to-thin-in-less-than-a-week pill or some strange utopian natural herb is going to match the exercise you'll be doing on this aerobic desktop replacement.
    Reply
  • steiner666
    need to get a pedal powered charger for my netbook! Just the other weekend there was a power outage for several hours and me and my friend were resorting to playing mario kart on it, I didnt have the battery fully charged when the power went out, if i had this it wouldnt have mattered!
    Reply
  • asjflask
    "Ha. This belongs in America, not Afghanistan. Gotta get this fat country in shape."

    Australia is now ranked above the U.S. in obesity.
    Reply
  • Ehsan w
    asjflask"Ha. This belongs in America, not Afghanistan. Gotta get this fat country in shape."Australia is now ranked above the U.S. in obesity.
    In a couple of years we'll have American's become the most muscular people in the world, when it comes to legs at least :P
    Reply