Concept Rocking Chair Could Power Your Phone
VoltaUC BerkeleyThe volta, a chair that generates energy while you rock.A team of four undergraduates from UC Berkeley has created a rocking chair that generates energy while you rock.The chair, called Volta, is equipped with a pendulum under the seat that moves as the sitter rocks back and forth. The motion of the pendulum generates energy that gets stored in batteries. That power can be used to give extra juice to electronics like phones and tablets.Originally, the team just wanted the power generated by the chair to be a novelty. People visiting the chair could rock and compare how much energy they generated through an app. But that didn't pan out.“Ultimately what ended up happening was people would keep saying, ‘Hey, where’s the plug to charge my phone?'” Jessica Chiu, one of the members of the team said in a release. So they added a USB...