Dear Ben and the element14 community,
I've been kicking around an idea for a build to help with weight loss. I'm 27 and after having my gallbladder removed due to an overly large gall stone I've been ordered to lose weight. This is, as many people know, is much harder then doctors or personal trainers make out to be. I also suffer from adult ADHD which makes it hard to try and stay focused on exercise even when I feel I should do it. ADHD effects more people then are willing to admit it, many may grow out of it or find ways of coping with it. However many adults and children with this disorder find no problem sitting still to play video games for hours at a time. And here we come to my build idea. In the gaming community a few prominent people are known to have put exercise equipment at there gaming stations to workout through the hours of game play that would normally been spent sitting down. Mike Krahulik, of Penny Arcade fame, built a desk at chest level to hold a PC while he walked on a treadmill. Burnie Burns from Red vs. Blue has a treadmill as well but simply in front of his TV playing the 360. My idea is to use the motion of exercise to generate usable power to do work. Things like charging small things like phones or music players. Or perhaps with a larger bank of power, even the console that is keeping the exerciser entertained. A treadmill would not do however, most require power to run the motors to keep the person walking. On the other hand most stair climbing machines seem to be entirely mechanical and utilizing little to none of the energy used to move them. My thought is to instead of giving a read out on how many stairs climbed, a read out of the amount of electricity generated. Also wiring up a USB outlet to connect devices to be charged. What do you think?