I think that like a lot of technologies, the difference in making a homemade experiment to demonstrate the technology and and creating a usable product with it is born from the work to optimize efficiency.

While the output of the chip may not necessarily be greatly enhanced through optimization, it could very well be that just a "Little more power" could be enough to do what it needs to do, in this case drive a fan.

20 years ago, we may not have had a fan that could be powered with one of these chips, but today, with just a bit of optimizing, combine that same chip with a more efficient fan and "Walla" you've got something that is suddenly possible that was not before.

That's what I see that's new here.

The goal of this product is to make something to cook food, not generate electricity. It would seem to me that they've succeeded in generating more than the fan uses so they decided to make that available for other uses. That's a good idea.

For discussions sake, let's say we change our goal to design a product that is intended to generate electricity from a wood fire, we might find that we can charge our cell phone and GPS while we sit around a small campfire for a couple hours. We might accomplish that right now with nothing but off the shelf parts. A gadget like that could be pretty handy.

Still not impressed?

Okay, Imagine a device similar to that shown that can charge all your stuff, your phone, camera, gps, flashlights, a tiny tent fan, etc. etc, in ten minutes. If the efficiencies in a batteries ability to take a charge are greatly increased then we might see that, and there is good reason to believe that will happen pretty soon.

That might not benefit backpackers in the Sierras much because you'd burn the forest down, but it would be pretty darn cool here in the Ozarks. Big time cool, and people would buy that gadget.

I love innovation. I love seeing old ideas improved and combined into new ones. Every time I do it gets my own gears turning. So many wonderful things have yet to be made, and I've already been witness to so many amazing new inventions in my life.

I have nothing but praise and encouragement for those guys. They are extending the trail one step further for us all to gaze from, and if you look hard you can begin to see the shape of new things that might be out there.