Scientists unveil a mobile phone charger powered by your knees

Scientists have developed a device that will allow us to charge our mobile phones as we walk, the Guardian reports.

No, it’s not your usual battery powered charger that you plug into your phone and invariably unplugs itself while you’re walking around.

The charger is a knee brace worn while you are walking. In the same way hybrid cars convert power generated from braking into electricity, the knee brace uses the energy dissipated at the knee as the leg slows after a step.

During testing, guinea pigs (the human kind, leg braces for real guinea pigs would be very small) who wore the braces on both legs managed to generate enough power to run a mobile phone, GPS unit or, more interestingly, a pacemaker.

The man behind the invention, Dr Arthur Kuo from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says that while they’ve successfully tested the concept on men walking at a nice leisurely pace, they’re unhappy with how bulky the invention is and hope to have it looking a bit more aesthetically pleasing before they’re finished.

All I can think about is how nice it would be to be able to go camping without having your gadgets run out of gas…pathetic isn’t it ?

Read the full story on the Guardian Online.