Phone batteries don’t last forever. In fact, it becomes a major inconvenience when it dies and you are not around an outlet to charge it. When Matthew Stanton was a sophomore at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, he often found himself walking around with a dead cell phone and no charger, or nowhere to plug in a charger. That annoying experience came back to him later when, as a mechanical engineering major in his senior year, he was on a design class team working to create something that would help students. After thinking back to all of his issues with his dead phone, Matt instantly thought of his new idea:
Stanton and a teammate from that class, Hahna Alexander, are now the proud co-founders of SolePower, a company based on the resulting device: an insole weighing less than five ounces that uses the energy created by walking to charge a cell phone. So now, hikers will no longer have to worry about dead phones; the same for people living without a reliable source of power.
This invention proves to be an example of young individuals finding problems in society and innovating to solve the issues. Not only did he solve a problem with a dead phone, but he improved on an issue involving lack of exercise. In order for the phone to charge, walking is needed. This idea can help individuals stay in better shape and stay healthy.
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This is a great example of taking something as simple as walking which everyone does to solve a problem brought by relatively new technology on the market. I think I’ve read about this and the only problem is the current cost of this technology, but other than that its a great idea.
I think this is so useful, especially in places where there might not be enough sunlight for a solar-powered phone charger. We’re seeing more and more products aimed at getting people up and moving, and this is by far the most useful product I’ve seen that requires walking!
This is such an amazing idea! I think this has so much potential. It is amazing how they thought outside the box of standard power sources. I love the creativity!
If the price is right I would be very interested in getting this. I am impressed with the way people are able to identify problems and then have the motivation to fix the problem.