Vibration into Electricity?

T.O.E Dream

How does this tiny generator work?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/06/t...o-electricity/

T.O.E Dream

I know what it does but what's the mechanism that turns vibration into electricity?

Integral

The key word you want to search is piezoelectric

ideasrule

That generator is not piezoelectric. The URL the OP linked to describes how it works very well:

"The sugar cube-sized generator, a smaller version of a design already commercially available, uses cantilever-mounted magnets to induce a current in a copper coil"

Basically, magnets shake around more than the copper coils. Magnetic flux through the coils changes, which induces a current in the coil via Faraday's law of induction.

Bob S

Those readers who are old enough to remember 33 RPM vinyl records may recall the magnetic pickup cartridge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_cartridge
This pickup came in two configurations; moving magnet and moving coil. Neither had any battery or external power supply. Both work on the Faraday induction law.
Bob S