iPod Powered by Our Heart?

While I was checking out Treehugger today, I came across an interesting article about iPods and our heartbeats.

According to some scientists at the American Chemistry Society, we might see this type of technology in the next five years. How cool would that be to power our iPods with our own hear beat? I think we would save a lot of energy then.

Lead scientist, Zhong Lin Wang, Ph.D of Georgia Institute of Technology, and other researchers have made a break through after working on creating this technology for six years now. They have created a small flexible chip that generates electricity when squeezed between two fingers. Soon this will change to generate electricity from our pulse.

"This development represents a milestone toward producing portable electronics that can be powered by body movements without the use of batteries or electrical outlets," said lead scientist Zhong Lin Wang, Ph.D. "Our nanogenerators are poised to change lives in the future. Their potential is only limited by one's imagination." Zhong also said that the faster this comes out into the market, the better our lives will be without all the batteries and chargers.

The way this works is by zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. These wires are piezoelectrixc, which means that they create electricity through any body movement, inlcuding blood flow through the body. Nanowires can also generate electricity by wind and even rolling tires.

What do you think about this? Would you want and iPod that is powered by your heart beat?