A Feasibility Study in Energy Harvesting from Piezoelectric Keyboards

The aim of the study was to investigate as to whether piezoelectric energy harvesting could be a viable contributor to a source of renewable energy for the future. Here, a keyboard usage study was conducted using a data gathering computer program called WhatPulse in which participants and their keyboards were monitored for one week. The results were used in conjunction with power output figures from work done by Wacharasindhu and Kwon (2008) who prototyped a piezoelectric keyboard and found it was capable of producing 650 µJ of energy per keystroke. The results from this study suggest piezoelectric keyboards could not be used to create self-sustaining systems for any of the devices proposed. Further uses for the stored energy have been suggested but the question to the viability of piezoelectric keyboards as a useful energy source looks discouraging. Other applications for the technology could be explored to enhance power output and utilise larger amounts of vibrational energy.