Photos: On the fringes of green technology

Everything vibrates a little bit. If you could harness that power, you could start to generate some serious watts. That's the idea behind some of the experiments taking place at the Georgia Institute of Technology and EnOcean, a German company. Researchers are collecting tiny bits of energy from vibration and movement, storing it and then using it very conservatively to power sensors and other devices. Ideally, you could get a self-sufficient security camera with enough of these devices.

Electricity can also be generated from temperature differentials. French nuclear scientists and a small U.S. company are working on exotic materials that could generate electricity from the heat present in an ordinary room.

It sounds great, though there's a lot of research left to be done.

Photo by Georgia Institute of Technology