Official News page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: PEDAL POWER CONVERTS TO PHONE POWER

by Hazed

If you're going to use your phone to examine blood samples - or just to make calls - you need a way to keep it charged up. Here's a neat idea that will let people living in rural areas without electricity to charge up the mobile phones: they simply have to go for a bike ride. Two electrical engineering students at a university in Kenya have come up with a gadget that lets bike riders convert their pedal power into phone power.

"The device is so small you can put it in your pocket with your phone while you are on your bike," said Jeremiah Murimi, the 24-year old who came up with this ingenious solution along with Pascal Katana, aged 22. "We both come from villages and we know the problems," he explained. People have to travel long distances to get to shops where they can charge their phones from a car battery or solar panel, but they are charged $2 a time for the privilege. By contrast, the inventors hope to sell the device for $4.50 each.

It is estimated that about 17.5 million people in Kenya own a mobile phone - that's just a bit short of half the population.

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