Get smart: Charge your phone while walking in this shoe

Just charge it: Anthony Mutua's sneaker.

(Credit:
Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)

Love walking and texting? Still haven’t done a faceplant on a streetlight? Well, this sneaker from Kenya can power your phone so you’ll never have to look up from that screen again.

Inventor Anthony Mutua, 24, has been showing off his recharging sneaker at the first-ever Kenyan Science Technology and Innovation Week, held in Nairobi. It’s another way of using your body’s own energy to fuel electronics.

The shoe apparently has a very thin “crystal chip,” perhaps a piezoelectric device, that generates power when the sole bends. It can charge phones via a long cable to a pocket while the user walks, or store power for later charging.

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“This charger works using pressure, as you walk you generate pressure that in turn generates… [Read more]

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