Those who panic at the mere sight of the low battery sign on their phones will appreciate Vodafone UK’s Power Pocket which is built into a pair of shorts as well as Recharge sleeping bag which can juice up gadgets without requiring an electric connection. According to the official blog of the service provider, these things use body heat and movement to generate energy, which in turn charges the battery.
The scientists over at the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton are mainly responsible for inventing these gadgets. Stephen Beeby, Professor of Electronics Systems at the university, and his team have been working on printed smart materials since the 80s which they fused with energy harvesting technology back in the 90s. And in the twenty first century, the scientists started working with thermoelectricity and eventually developed a printed thermoelectric material.
The aforementioned material is basically used in the shorts as well as the sleeping bag. Once a thermoelectric module is created using thermocouples and heat is passed through it, the setup generates current and voltage as one of its sides is hot, while the other is cold. This is what is responsible for creating electrical power. And as soon as a phone, a tablet or any other handheld gadget comes in contact with it, the power starts charging up the device.
This is precisely the technology which has been used in the shorts and the sleeping bag which claim to juice up phones while users are walking, dancing or even when they are sleeping. The biggest advantage is that there is absolutely no need to carry a bulky charger or even keep the gadget tethered to a wall socket, thanks to these accessories.
The Isle of Wight festival is where they will be tested. The network provider will also be setting up Recharge-Trucks at the venue which are capable of recharging close to 2000 devices at the same time. People who sleep in the Recharge bags for 8 hours can expect talk time of about 24 minutes or standby time of close to 8 hours, whereas dumping the phone in the Power Pocket shorts for an entire day will ensure usage time of up to 4 hours.
The charging shorts and sleeping bag are currently in the testing stages and nothing has been revealed about their commercial release as yet.