Footballs that can power a mobile phone or light
A football which generates enough electricity to charge a mobile phone or power a light from a brief kick about is undergoing trials in World Cup host country South Africa.
The sOccket power generating football has been designed by four female undergraduate students in their twenties from Harvard University.
The sOccket works on the same principal as the “shake to charge” torch, where a magnetic ball rolls through a coil to create an electric charge.
In just 15 minutes of being kicked around, it can generate enough electricity to power an LED light for three hours and charge virtually any type of mobile telephone.
The undergraduate students wanted to find a solution to the developing world’s chronic power shortages.
“Soccer is something you will find in every African country,” Jessica Lin, one of sOccket’s inventors, said. “People play for hours a day, so we thought, ‘Why not try to get a little more out of that energy?’”
She said the aim was to harness the passion for football particularly among children in Africa’s poorest communities to provide them with reading torches for when the light fades – at present around 5.30pm in South Africa.
Julia Silverman, 21, who also worked on the project has brought the ball to South Africa’s townships for trials to coincide with the World Cup.
“The kids call it ‘the magic ball’,” she said. “Whenever you see a child plug in their ball for the first time and see the torch light up from the energy they’ve created, their eyes light up too – it’s a wonderful feeling.”
“If you think that the energy generated by a 15-minute kick around provides three hours of light, you can read a lot of pages from a textbook in that time.”
The sOccket team hope to have their product available for sale online by the end of the year. They intend to sell them to people in developed countries in a buy-one-give-one scheme that will see the second ball sent to charities working in African townships.
“Obviously, this won’t be a regulation ball,” Miss Lin said. “But it’s a big improvement over some of the makeshift balls the kids create from things like old plastic bags.”
