Patent ID: 7081693

Claim:
A system comprising: an ambient source of energy including at least one from the group including infrastructure, a vehicle, and a machine; ambient energy provided by said ambient source of energy, including at least one from the group including ambient mechanical energy and ambient magnetic field coupled energy; and a circuit including an energy harvesting device, a load, a storage device, and a controller, wherein said circuit is mounted for harvesting said ambient energy from said ambient source of energy and converting said ambient energy into electrical energy, wherein said electrical energy is harvested from said ambient source of energy at a rate below that required for directly powering said load; wherein said storage device is connected to receive said electrical energy from said energy harvesting device, wherein said storage device is for storing said electrical energy; and wherein said a controller is connected to said storage device for monitoring the amount of electrical energy stored in said storage device and for switchably connecting said storage device to said load when said stored energy exceeds a first threshold.