Your footsteps may not be able to form diamonds (thankfully), but your idle patter can still be converted into the most valuable commodity of all-- energy.

Biostep
Described by Lazor as "the most user-friendly project of anything we've seen," Biostep is a pressure-sensitive floor tile that can convert footsteps into energy stored in a high-capacity battery cell. Based on research undertaken at MIT's Media Lab, the tiles are designed to look and feel like rubber flooring. Ideally they would be installed in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic so that the footfalls of shoppers at a mall, say, could light the stores. The jurors liked that Biostep derived its power from common routines. "It's great because it's universal," said Nikitas. "Not everybody drives, not everybody rides a bicycle, but everybody walks."

This is genius. Probably the next ecohouse design must have, when the price comes down I look foward to brewing mochas with my morning rush.

Credit where it's due: Team Biostep at the Pratt Institute in good old New York City & MIT Labs. link