Sunday, July 7, 2013

SolePower charges smartphones by harnessing walking power

What if people could charge their phones by going for a walk? No electricity, no power outlets, no more dealing with dead phone batteries. This idea actually isn't too farfetched.

A new Kickstarter campaign is focused on getting funding for a power generating shoe insert that lets users charge portable devices -- like smartphones, music players, and GPS devices -- while they walk.

The device is called SolePower and is currently in an alpha prototype phase. The company is looking to raise $50,000 by July 18 to start working toward finalizing a mass producible product.

SolePower founders Matthew Staton and Hahna Alexander came up with the idea as mechanical engineering students at Carnegie Mellon University.

"We initially designed SolePower to simply light an LED on the shoe so students walking to and from campus at night would be more visible," Stanton told CNET. "After we developed a proof of concept prototype for the class we realized that there were many more applications for the device."

Looking to solve the issue of a dead phone battery and no power outlet in sight, a new invention on Kickstarter says it can capture, generate, and store power within a shoe insole. Read More»