Unplugged: The revolutionary green desk

With the rapid advancement of technology the past few years, we've been able to invent solar panels and wind farms that provide cleaner energy. Now, Eddie Tornberg has taken it a step further, and has invented an office desk that is powered by its user

This new and revolutionary office desk is called Unplugged, and is quite Spartan in design. It includes a lone carpet, a chair, a flowering plant, a lamp, and the desk itself. What makes this office desk unique is that each one of its components plays a vital part in powering the desk itself. So where does the energy come from? Well, quite frankly, the person whose sitting at the desk does all the powering. The carpet, is specially woven with piezo elements which can generate power and energy through mechanical stress. This means that the carpet will produce energy when there is force applied, such as rolling a chair or even just walking on it. The plant acts as a microbial fuel cell, and takes energy from the sun to power the desk. In a way, the flowering plant is like a miniature solar panel, except its process of producing energy is even cleaner because it is done naturally through photosynthesis. By exploiting the Seebeck effect, the chair itself can produce energy of its own as well. When one sits on the chair, and warms the top of the chair, the bottom part of the seat is kept cool by fins. The product of this difference in temperatures is electricity. In the meantime, Unplugged can't generate enough energy to power a laptop, but it can power a small desk lamp. Most importantly, the energy that is produced is invisible, clean, and natural. Tornberg, now hopes that manufacture companies will embrace his ideas and ecological designs, and start introducing the Unplugged desk into offices and the work force.