As energy prices continue to rise, human beings have turned to ever more diverse sources to meet their energy needs. But as a string of innovative products has demonstrated recently, one of the cleanest running and most reliable power sources might be lying right below our noses. Boise-based startup M2E is serious about delivering you added power from your everyday activities.

Certainly, the notion of human power is nothing new. From butter churns to bicycles to kinetic watches, human beings have provided power to nearly every process imaginable at some point. But the concept of human motion being captured and stored as electricity is a relatively new idea. 

M2E has already announced plans for a commercial charger that taps the motion of your body to create energy and store it in a $40, iPod-sized unit with a USB port. The company claims it can provide you with an extra hour of talk time on your cell phone—not bad considering the increasing drain newer models are placing on their batteries. In theory, if you limited your talk and phone time strategically, or strapped on enough battery packs, you could power your phone entirely with your own movements, eschewing the coal-heavy power supply entirely.

There is, however, some debate about whether human power is truly clean. While The Matrix depicted a future in which human beings were grown wholesale as a power supply, the film overlooked that humans, by the laws of thermodynamics, must consume more energy than they provide. In fact, due to carbon emissions inherent in the production and delivery of most food, some have theorized that walking is less carbon-friendly than driving. 

While many impacts of human activity are detrimental to the environment, the biggest problem involved with human-powered technologies isn’t efficiency but power. While a fit cyclist may be able travel roughly 53 miles on the energy contained in a burrito, with sustained power outputs of only 200-300 watts, the trip will take several hours.

Fortunately, the human-movement power systems offered by M2E are currently being developed into wider motion-based energy solutions. Things like the rocking of a car’s suspension may someday help to power its windshield wipers, and other motion-based technologies, such as hydrokinetic power, may also make massive gains from the research. As M2E’s engineers have already improved output from their systems some 300 to 700 percent, the investment you make in an iPod charger one day may help you power your house the next.

Photo by Flickr user woodleywonderworks