The practical potential of the Biomechanical Energy Harvester is the product of a number of distinct insights and innovations:

Hinging on Success
Previous and existing devices that harvest energy from human movement focus on either the compression of the heel or the shifting of a mass carried on the back. The former approach generates little power, while the latter approach only works while a heavy weight is carried. Early in the design process, Bionic Power's biomechanical engineers concluded that the most productive energy-harvesting site for walking is the knee joint. The knee has more displacement than the heel, and you use the existing leg as the load relieving the need to add mass.

Accentuate the Negative
Just as a hybrid vehicle recovers power from the energy of braking, the Biomechanical Energy Harvester takes advantage of the "negative" or energy-absorbing work naturally performed by leg muscles during walking. Rather than creating resistance that demands additional effort, the device actually helps muscles do their locomotive work by engaging only during the "braking" phase of the leg's swing when muscles are acting to decelerate the limb.

Clarity From Chaos
At first glance, motion at the knee appears to be ill-suited for power generation: It is variable, intermittent, bidirectional, and limited to speeds too low for a generator. The harvester employs a number of on-board mechanical and electrical innovations to condition this motion for useful and reliable electricity generation.

Smart Generation
The quantity of power available during walking varies tremendously with terrain and speed. Using a series of embedded sensors and a proprietary control system, Bionic Power's device tunes itself with each stride to extract the maximum amount of power with the minimum amount of effort.