Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2008/06/24/orange_kinetic_phone_charger/
Orange launches dance-powered phone charger
Kinetic charger to launch at Glastonbury
Posted in Personal Tech, 24th June 2008 11:22 GMT
If you love music festivals, but can’t bear the thought of your mobile phone running out of juice, Orange has the answer. The network operator’s designed a phone charger powered by your ability to do The Monkey, The Robot and The Worm.
Orange's Dance Charge is powered by kinetic energy
The Orange Dance Charge is a portable phone charger powered through the kinetic movement of a system of weighs and magnets, which move as you groove. The system’s contained within a jogger-style MP3 arm strap, which also contains a storage battery for holding all the dance-generated energy.
When your mobile phone runs out of power, you only have to connect the storage battery up to your mobile phone before you've got enough juice to continue snapping blurry pictures of on-stage bands, or texting your mates that Trent Reznor’s sweat just landed on your face.
In single-minded pursuit of the groove...
But, if you’re not a confident salsa swinger or disco diva, then Orange has also lined-up the Dance Charging Man – an interactive dancer that’ll generate power for you with his own dance skills.
So far, Orange has only developed a limited number of functioning prototype Dance Charge models, which it’ll be dolling out to a test-bed of dancers at this year’s Annual Mud Gathering, also known as Glastonbury.
Earlier this month, Orange also unveiled a mobile phone charging tent for Glastonbury, which has a large wind turbine and solar panels atop its canvas roof to generate power for up to 100 phones.