The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 26, 2011
Filed:
Sep. 04, 2007
Shawn Michael Frayne, Mountain View, CA (US);
Shawn Michael Frayne, Mountain View, CA (US);
Humdinger Wind Enery LLC, Honolulu, unknown;
Abstract
An energy converter for inducing membrane vibrations when subject to a fluid flow and converting the kinetic energy embedded in the fluid flow into another form of energy, such as electricity. The energy converter includes a supporting structure and multiple generator units. Each generator unit includes at least one flexible membrane, and at least one electrical conductor and at least one magnetic field generator configured to apply a magnetic field to the at least one electrical conductor, wherein one of the electrical conductor and the magnetic field generator is attached to the membrane and configured to move with the membrane. Each membrane vibrates when subject to the fluid flow and has at least two ends supported by the supporting structure. The vibration of each membrane creates a relative movement between the conductor and a magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generator, which induces a current. A power conditioning circuit is provided to condition the current.