Now, T-shirts to charge your cellphones

LONDON: Imagine plugging your mobile into your T-shirt to charge its battery. It may sound a bit utopian but it's now a reality, thanks to scientists who've developed such a garment which uses loud music to power up a cell phone.

A team at telecoms giant Orange has unveiled the new T-shirt that charges mobiles while one watches musical bands in action; users just have to plug their phones into the T- shirt for a quick top-up charge whenever they need it.

The futuristic garment works by using noise-responsive technology -- simply, the louder the music, then the quicker the phone charges, say its developers.
It uses an A4-size piece of piezoelectric film in a T-shirt to absorb pressure from sound waves. It converts these into an electrical charge, which it then transfers from its battery into a lead that fits most phones.

Orange will be conducting live testing of the gadget on site at the Glastonbury musical festival in Britain to see which acts are the "best to charge to" around the Spirit Of 71 stage, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Tony Andrews, co-producer of the Spirit Of 71, said: "Sound vibrations, particularly bass frequencies, will create enough shaking to produce electricity from a material as simple as piezoelectric film.

"It looks like it could provide a real solution to mobile charging and I'm interested to see how the Orange Sound Charge performs in live testing environment like Glastonbury."

Andrew Pearcey, head of sponsorship at Orange UK, said: "In a vibrant festival environment such as Glastonbury, sound is such an obvious medium that it seemed like a natural fit to use it in the development of this year's prototype."