Generating energy with those irritating wheeled shoes

The other day I was sitting at my table with my wife eating dinner at a restaurant. In comes a family with a couple of kids. I'll be honest and admit that I have no children so maybe my tolerance is low. But, I do like kids and I have dogs which can be awfully irritating themselves at times. So, back to the family... they have a pre-teen boy who is skating through the restaurant on those shoes with the wheels in the heels. I don't think those shoes are a big deal on a sidewalk, or at a park or something like that. But, in a restaurant, I think that they are just a little inappropriate. Not so much the shoes themselves, but the act of skating with them is what I'm talking about. Could I just wear my rollerblades into an Olive Garden and not expect somebody to notice? OK, let's move on.

Here is a story about a hacked pair of Heeleys. The goal was to be able to harvest energy from the rolling shoes. The execution includes a small generator and an LCD screen. The rest of the details can be found here. If you insist on wearing these shoes, consider doing some good with them. Or, you know... just don't wear them at all. Whatever. I must be getting old!

[Source: xncroft via Engadget]