Almost a year ago, we brought you news of a seemingly crazy
scheme to generate electricity from the footfalls of pedestrians
and we're happy to update that with word that the scheme was
such a success it's being expanded.  The experiment is being run
by JR East, one of Japan's national rail operators, in Tokyo
station and now features much-improved technology that increases
the previous power-generating capacity.  Power up  Piezoelectric
elements in the floor around ticket gates convert the kinetic
energy of footsteps to electricity, with improvements boosting
the capacity by a factor of ten from the earlier trial.  JR East
says it expects the power floor to generate 1,400kW per day,
which will be more than enough to power the RFID-reading ticket
gates as well as electronic billboards in the station.  Numbers
game  Of course, Tokyo being home to almost 13 million people
greatly helps JR East in its drive to harness the energy they
expend on the daily commute, so we don't expect to see this
technology in Accri