A student by the name of Himachel Pradesh has created a cell phone charger that is shoe powered. It uses the impact of walking to operate a charger. He claims that it can charge a cell phone in about one hour.
This could be very useful when you are a long way from electricity. For example, a camping trip may be a great opportunity to use such a device. It looks a little funny on your leg, so away from civilization would be the only place I would be using it.
This is a very cool idea, that could be applied to all sorts of devices. The act of capturing energy and reusing it, can make life easier and more efficient. I like the idea of using something that most of us do anyway (walk), to generate power for something that we often use.
Great Job Himachel!
This is really interesting. Such a gadget would be, as you point out, extremely useful.
Get Smart
For those of us that have been around a while,(or have seen the old cable shows) this reminds me of Don Adams as Max or agent 86 on the GET SMART tv series.
I also have a Guidesman LED flashlight that can temporarily charge a cell phone. The flash light and its accesorry port are charged with a mechanical wind-up hand crank.
But I agree that it is a lot easier walking than cranking