Coolest Thing of The Day: Plug and Play

On top of being a gracious host of the World Cup, South Africa is offering the world another precious idea.  Four Harvard engineering classmates of 2008 by Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar created this amazing portable energy generator inspired by spending time in Africa. They felt the urge to create clean energy with an element of culture and entertainment.  Funded by the Harvard Institute for Global Health and also the Clinton Global Initiative, sOccket is one of the most innovative forms of energy-generating gadgets that even incorporates an active lifestyle.

While hustling in a sweat drenching session of football, the revolutionary sOccket can simultaneously generate enough power to light up a small LED lamp for about 3 hours or charge up a cell phone.  The overall instructions are very simple, play soccer, then plug in appliance. 

How does this work?  An internal inductive coil inside the ball creates magnetic forces inside as the ball moves which in turn produces voltage generating electricity.