Orange Power wellies – use your feet to get mobile phone charge at Glastonbury

Not content with developing an augmented reality iPhone app for Glastonbury, Orange has also been developing a rather low tech prototype – a mobile phone charging device for your Glasto wellies.

At first I thought this was an April Fool. But seemingly not, given we are half way through June. Billed as perfect for this weekend’s Glastonbury festival (handy given your mobile phone normally runs out of charge after a few hours of texting/phoning your mates to find out where they are) it apparently works by converting the heat from your feet into electric current.

Twelve hours of stomping through the mud will give about 1 hour of charge (not much really), but you can increase it by dancing around because the hotter your feet get the more energy you produce.

Developed in conjunction with Got Wind, the Power Wellies are unfortunately still in prototype form. But you can recharge your devices (mobile phones, even laptops) in the Orange Chill ‘n’ Charge area. For more information go to www.orange.co.uk/glastonbury

Here’s a video featuring a geeky guy from Got Wind explaining how the wellies work. Though after watching it I’m still no clearer how it all works or whether the product will ever see the light of day. Probably not I’m guessing.