Non-profit Cycles Wifi And Voip Into Third World Phones

[rpm]

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=621

 

[dominic]

truly awesome

The VoIP bicycle works like this: Someone sits on the bike and pedals to generate power. That drives power for the low-power computer. A regular telephone handset is connected to a circuit board that plugs into the computer. A caller can use the phone to place a call over a wireless Internet connection using the 802.11b WiFi radio standard.

Since the bike has a directional antenna with a range of 7.2 miles, the call can be carried that distance until it hits another antenna. That antenna transmits the call another 7 miles and so on. So the VoIP bike and its network of antennas can actually extend the range of the phone to 62 miles. Once it reaches a given destination, Inveneo can switch the call into the regular phone network, and direct it to any phone worldwide.

The wireless technology provides bandwidth of 1 megabit a second, or enough to carry 15 simultaneous phone conversations with decent quality. The bike has a solar panel for the day time, but pedal power can supply electricity at night. Hence, the bikes can provide 24-hour-a-day phone service, given enough pedalers. Each bike can be set up for a cost of about $2,000.

this could be extremely useful in some parts of SA...i could also maybe set one up in the basement and put the wife and kids to work

 

[LoneGunman]

very weirdly basic solar panel if it doesn't/can't store sufficient power for night time..
did someone skimp on the correct panels, for some reason.
I mean there was that recent item about a kid making a cellphone charger from
his hamster's running wheel http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1513938.html
even that actually managed to store power, for future use. Where's the 'future'
use storage capacity for this thing?