Shawn Frayne

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Shawn Frayne International Development Design
Summit, MIT 2008 smf_at_humdingerwind.com www.humdin
gerwind.com
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• Harder problems make for better inventions.
• or
• Constraints are good.

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The new appropriate technology

• Confluent technology
• A term coined by Gwyn Jones, based on a song by
  Kurt
• Kornbluth
• Whats confluence?
• The place where two streams meet and become one.
• A convergence of forces, people, or things.
• The point where technologies developed in
  emerging economies impact industries around the
  world.
• The drop in price for things such as LEDs, or
  programable circuits, meeting the cost
  constraints of technologies in developing
  countries.
• Emerging economies are the breeding grounds for
  the
• next generation of global innovators/inventors

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• and these inventors/innovators will create the
  revolutions of the next 50-100 years --
• the industry starters
• Wind, ocean solar power
• Energy storage
• Biofuels
• Medical diagnostic
• Urban planning
• Food processing
• ICT
• Clean water

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A confluent tech example The SoDis bag

• SODIS SOlar water DISinfection, pioneered by
  SANDEC.
• Two million people use SODIS regularly for their
  clean water.
• Old 1-2 L bottles are the typical container for
  SODIS.

Photo by SANDEC, www.sodis.ch
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The Challenge Improve the SODIS Bag

• Improving the SODIS bag was a MIT D-Lab Design
  Challenge from 2004-2005.
• 2 million current users. Why so few?
• Bottles are keeping SODIS from reaching a wider
  audience. (Shipping bottles is shipping empty
  space)
• SANDEC realized this, and did a large-scale trial
  of bags. At first, the bags were received well
  (Swiss-made. Whoo!), but then abandoned.

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SODIS Bag The Constraints

• Can be manufactured in Haiti
• Will last for two months
• Completely transparent structure
• Less than US0.50 selling price
• Easy to fill
• Easy to pour
• Marketable (e.g., must be able to convince people
  that this is a unique bag that can actually
  disinfect water)

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The SODIS valve

• The difficult
• constraints forced
• the innovation of a
• new type of valve.
• This valve had strong
• novelty, and so was
• patented in the
• US/EU, and rights in
• non-solar disinfection
• applications sold to a
• Fortune 500 company.

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Patenting and Open Source Secret friends

• Problem How can you get value from new ideas,
  in places where patent systems dont exist?
• Grab onto the patent systems and markets of
  wealthy countries, generate revenue, use this to
  build the new industries in the place the
  technology started
• This creates a link between effort and reward for
  inventors and innovators in developing countries.
• There are no worldwide patents. Patenting
  something in Japan doesnt affect rights in
  Zambia.
• Patented tech and open source tech can be
  friends!

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Confluence 2 New tools for the harvest
The history of wind power is a history of
rotating systems.
Photo credit Ina Rommeck
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Shifting winds The constraints

• 1-2 wind generator can light several white LEDs,
  charge a cell phone, or power a radio
• Modular Power in small chunks, with the ability
  to expand. (e.g., solar cells, IDE drip)
• Can be manufactured in Haiti or Guatemala
• Transparent tech Easy to repair, improve.
• Minimize grinding, wearable parts

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The Future of Wind Power
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How to Make Wind Small, without Turbines

• Lift drag over a wing governs turbine-based
  generators.
• Fortunately, the world is full of wonder (and
  other aerodynamic effects).
• Humdingers technologies use aeroelastic flutter
  A destructive force, reformed.

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The WindbeltTM Technology Variations

• 1. Microbelt. The battery killer.
• mW-scale
• Displacing batteries in wireless sensors (air
  quality, bridges, smart buildings)
• Completing the energy harvesting micro
  portfolio

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The WindbeltTM Technology Variations

• 2. Structure-free. The tape measure.
• 1-10W scale
• The new wind power cell. 2/Wp target for each
  generator.
• Rural electrification, WiFi repeaters
• modular, to power (almost) anything!

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The WindbeltTM Technology Variations

• 3. Scaling-up. The
• Mosquito Coast
• test tower
• 100W/belt scale
• Goal beat /W of megawatt turbines, with
  aeroelastic flutter
• Research and development contract with AIDG and
  XelaTeco

Photo credit Ina Rommeck
(www.xelateco.com)
(www.aidg.org)
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Wind power, LIVE! Build a Windbelt, before the
end of this song (for this final trick, I will
need a volunteer from the audience, and some
moringa)
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• The confluent technology revolution has already
  begun.
• OLPC laptop screen
• Jaipur Foot prosthetics
• Tata Nano US2000 car
• Amy Smiths Phase-change incubator
• Super-long battery-life Motophone
• (and, now, at the most important summit in the
  world. IDDS!)

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• So now, lets all get some dessert, and
  build/demolish some things (in no particular
  order)
• Questions, comments?
• Shawn Frayne
• smf_at_humdingerwind.com
• shawn.frayne (skype)
• 650.488.8013
• http//www.humdingerwind.com

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Appendix All seeds look the same from a distance