Soccer Ball That Is Also A Portable Generator

By The Nag in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods on Jul 16, 2011 at 9:23 am

Many children around the world don’t have electricity but they do play soccer. The soccket is a soccer ball that captures energy with every kick. Fifteen minutes of play produces three hours of light.

The sOccket harnesses the kinetic (motion) energy of the soccer ball during normal game play and stores it for later power needs. After play, an LED lamp can be plugged into the sOccket to provide light for reading and other activities normally impossible after dark.

It’s a clean, portable generator that can provide light to families in need around the world. Four Harvard students created this project for the American Express-sponsored Take Part program.

Link – Via John Gushue … Dot Dot Dot

Tags: generator, soccer ball, soccket

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Joshua Dorkin
Jul 16th, 2011 at 9:48 am
What an incredible idea. These balls can make such a big difference in the developing world, and set an example of what creative thinking can lead us to. Lets hope that this idea inspires others to take alternative energy production to the next levels.
Ratz
Jul 16th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Unless it’s got a (horribly expensive) piezoelectric film on the inside of the leather, I presume it’s got a magnet in a coil of wire in there. What would that do to the performance/characteristics of the ball?
Nick Gisburne
Jul 16th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Of course there’s always the already-widespread and very inexpensive ‘shake torch’ – shake for a minute and it gives you 10 minutes of light. Advantage: if the power runs down in the middle of the night you don’t have to boot it around the house in the dark until it’s recharged.
nobody
Jul 16th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
If there is any value at ALL in these soccer balls, they’ll be whisked away from the needy kids that get them, by bigger bullies.
Its one of those “amazing ideas” that in reality, is super scary. I could see young kids trying to defend their families only source of light, and getting seriously beat up.
Ernest
Jul 16th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Now children, if your ball ever rolls out into the street… Dart out and get it before it gets run over!!!
ted
Jul 17th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
If the human expends energy to kick the ball around, wouldn’t it be more efficient for the human simply to crank a generator?

Sometimes the less glamorous ideas are the ones that work.
The Nag
Jul 17th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
It’s easier to convince a kid to kick a soccer ball than to crank a generator.
ted
Jul 18th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
So we disguise child labour as “fun”, then?

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