Soccer is one of the world’s most popular sports because of its simplicity. All you need is a soccer ball and that’s about it. Everything else can be improvised. Don’t have an official field, play on the street, no nets, use jackets or whatever else you can find for goal posts.
Because soccer is global sport, one that is played in many African countries, four engineering students from Harvard University saw this as an opportunity to potentially generate clean free energy.
Their invention, called sOccket, consists of a specially crafted soccer ball which contains an inductive coil mechanism that is able to capture kinetic energy. As the soccer ball is in play and kicked around, a current is generated and stored in an internal battery. The concept is really not all that different from the camping flashlights that you need to shake in order to build a working charge. From their estimates, the gadgetry added to the soccer ball does not add any noticeable weight to the ball and 15 minutes of playtime is sufficient to power a small LED light for up to 3 hours which in a country that still relies on dangerous kerosene lamps is pretty exceptional.
Via: Inhabitat
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