At stations in the center of town, many people come and go. Can't this enormous amount of transfer energy be used to generate electricity? This simply idea led Japanese researchers to  actually start testing the amount of energy that can be generated by sound waves and vibration on the floor. The East Japan Railway Company thus aims to develop more environmentally friendly train stations as part of the electricity used by customers now gets produced by customers.

The key technology of the "electricity generating floor", which generates electricity using vibration when someone steps on the floor, is piezoelectric element. Those disc-shaped components, which are 35 millimetres in diameter, were used for loudspeakers so far. The "electricity generating floor" uses 600 of these elements per square meter. While the loudspeaker creates sound by converting electric signals to vibrations, the floor adopts the reverse mechanism that produces electricity by harnessing the vibrational power generated from passengers' steps.

In October 2006, an experiment started at the Marunouchi North Gate of JR Tokyo station to test electricity generating power and durability. The electricity generated when people walk on the special floors is stored in an electric double layer capacitor. On the first day of the test, the total output generated from early morning to 14:00 reached approximately 1 Wh. "The output is small and it will take some more time to finish verification on durability and other factors before the actual debut," said a source from JR East.

JR-East, who worked with Keio University to develop the system, affirms that in addition to being put to use as an independent power supply that does not require hard-wiring, the system can also be used as a way of measuring the traffic flow through ticket gates. In the future, the plan is to supply electrical power for escalators and lights with the "electricity generating floor", aiming for environmentally-friendly railways and stations. (JR-East)