
Origami-Folded Hydrogel Paper Instantly Generates 110 Volts of Electricity - rbanffy
https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/biomedical/devices/origamifolded-hydrogel-paper-instantly-generates-110-volts-of-electricity
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userbinator
_110 volts of charge_

I can see things like that appearing in mainstream media, but reading that
from the IEEE is... disappointing.

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delecti
Calling this 3d printed reminds me of how some video games are referred to as
2.5D. It looks like a 2D array of dots without any real third dimension
construction other than the volume of the dots. The resolution is also a fair
bit lower than even consumer grade 3D printer technology. The current results
are already impressive, but it seems they have a lot of headroom to grow into
as well.

Also, I wonder if the coloring of the dots is simply to keep track of which
type each is.

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zokier
A simple air balloon can easily generate thousands of volts of electricity.
Somehow the energy crisis is still not solved by rubbing balloons.

~~~
yuhong
I do wonder how insect zappers work though.

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gus_massa
From [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-
killing_device#Electric_fl...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-
killing_device#Electric_flyswatter)

> _The handle contains a battery-powered high-voltage generator. The circuit
> is composed of an electronic oscillator, a step-up transformer and a voltage
> multiplier,_ [...] _A capacitor attached to the electrodes discharges during
> the spark, and this initial discharge usually stuns or kills the fly._

Follow the links in Wikipedia to understand how each step works.

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yuhong
Yea, that is the point of me posting this. The point is that it is pretty
similar.

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gus_massa
They are quite different.

This paper device use a chain of small drops that have different chemical
composition that produce a small voltage. Using a chain of them they get a
high voltage.

The insect zapper use only one or two batteries (that are chemical cells) to
produce 1.5V or 3V and the use a complex electric circuit to produce the high
voltage.

(There is some ladder of capacitor in the voltage multiplier that are slightly
similar to the chemical cells in the paper device, but I think they have more
differences than similarities.)

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kazinator
If it's going to be "origami folded", then call it "denki-unagi-inspired" for
consistency. :)

[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3...](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3%82%A6%E3%83%8A%E3%82%AE)

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tyingq
Electric eel reminded me of "Electric Feel", which centers around electric
eels. So I'm going to risk HN wrath for linking out to this video I really
like: [https://vimeo.com/145506579](https://vimeo.com/145506579)

Skip to 1:40 if you just want to hear the song.

~~~
tyingq
Consolation link if you don't like MGMT:
[https://youtu.be/c75TZAsc11o](https://youtu.be/c75TZAsc11o)

If you can't appreciate her...

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gitgud
So it's a battery printed on paper, which completes the circuit when folded?

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agumonkey
Probably the cutest tech prototype I've ever seen.

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jeremyt
At what current?

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dragontamer
Well, current is Coulombs / second. The smaller the amount of time, the higher
the current.

I think your real question is, how many Coulombs. Because it isn't very much
energy to transfer 100 Amps for a femtosecond.

\----------

Overall, they need to say how many Watts does it generate. There are multiple
circuits to arbitrarily convert voltage into current and vice versa. The real
difficult part is creating a sustainable source power.

\---------

Now that I think of it, a mechanical paper "compression" that generates
electricity would be a very interesting sensor. There are a lot of
piezoelectric stuff out there already (crystals and buttons and stuff). But if
there's a way to easily create a peizoelectric sensor from a 3d printer,
that'd be good news.

Current / power isn't very important for sensor applications. (Detecting
whether or not something is bending over or whatever)

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squarefoot
That would make a truly interesting development, like body movement tracking
and other sensing technologies. If that's the direction, then I agree that
power generation becomes irrelevant.

