If you think that a solar-powered backpack is a bit overkill for your needs – and don’t fancy the idea of solar-powered clothing – then perhaps Nokia’s new bicycle-based charger will help keep your smartphone ticking over.
Revealed over on Digital Trends, the Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit is designed to give cyclists a way to harness the energy they’re pumping into their bike and tap off a little to keep their smartphone – or other gadget – topped up during the trip.
The design behind the concept is simple: based around the same fork-mounted dynamo design that bicycle lights used to use – the ones that dimmed when you slowed down and stopped providing the energy – the device rotates as the wheel spins and generates a small but useful amount of electrical energy.
This energy is transmitted up a wire to a handlebar mount on which your gadget will sit, and connect to your handset via a standard Nokia 2mm DC power jack.
Nokia’s vice president, Alex Lambeek, claims that “bicycles are the most widespread means of transport in many markets around the world, so this is just one more benefit to be gained from an activity people are already doing,” and states that the device will allow “even more freedom [for people] to use their Nokia without worrying about battery life.”
The small amount of friction that the dynamo adds shouldn’t cause too much of a problem for your average rider – although it’s not something you’d want adding drag during the Tour de France – and the team behind it claims that it should be able to provide a usable charging current at around four to five miles per hour.
It’s a neat design, and one which will appeal to environmentally-conscious consumers across the US as well as those in developing nations who have a Nokia handset but no regular access to reliable electricity in order to charge it.
Although no official launch date has been set, Nokia has confirmed that the Bicycle Charger Kit is a real product and not a mere concept device – and states that when it does launch, it will retail on-line and via high-street retailers for around $20 – not a bad price for a fairly unique bit of kit.
Now that Nokia have announced their intentions, it’s quite likely that the company’s competitors will take notice – and the first company to release a similar bicycle-mounted charger that offers a device agnostic USB port for charging any gadget is likely to have a seriously hot product on its hands.
