Teenager Invents Phone Charger that Uses Energy from Human Body

HandEnergy, a phone charger invented and developed by a 19-year-old named Michael Vaga, allows you to charge your phone simply by rotating your hand, essentially using the energy from the human body to charge the phone (via The Telegraph). Rotating your hand activates the device’s gyroscope to produce energy that can then either be stored or used to immediately charge any mobile phone, or a portable USB charging device.

The product’s kickstarter campaign with a pledge goal €50,000, has already raised €71,333 from people hoping to get their hands on early units of the HandEnergy charger. 

“With each rotation of your hand, the rotor speed increases significantly and generates more power. The average speed of the rotor is 5,000rpm”, said the teenager inventor, who is from Minsk, Belarus. “We translate the mechanical energy you put in into electrical energy and this means you can charge your device”, he added.

The invention took over a year to develop, and Mr Vaga has said it is ideal for people who spend a long time away from a power source. It takes between 40 minutes and one hour to fully charge the batteries of the HandEnergy device. This speed is reduced by 30 per cent if a phone is being charged at the same time.

Mr Vaga said the charger is good as an emergency source of energy, but also it is an example of clean energy.

The charger will be available from March 2017 with an expected retail price of €99 (CDN $139).