billiejean.jpgPardon the superfluous Michael Jackson shot, but there's just something about this bit of news regarding two MIT students' proposal for a "Crowd Farm" that keeps bringing to mind those images from the "Billie Jean" video, in which the king of pop's dance styling are so smooth as to illuminate the sidewalk beneath him.

James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk's Crowd Farm works on a similar principle, harnessing the movements of pedestrians to generate energy. The students are proposing implementation at Boston's South Station railway terminal, using the moment of riders in the station to depress small sub-flooring blocks. The movements of the blocks is then converted from motion energy into an electrical current.

In small doses, it's not exactly the most efficient method for harnessing energy--a single step only provides enough energy to power two 60w light bulbs for a second. It takes 28,527 to power a train for that same amount of time. Still, these days we'll take energy where we can get it.