The Chargeboard

A student designer has built a skateboard that harnesses the kinetic energy from the motion of the wheels to store power and charge your device. It's called the Chargeboard, and its creator, Bjorn van den Hout, who designed the board as a school project for the Willem de Kooning Academy of art and design in the Netherlands explains, "The two dynamos in the in the rear axles generate 6V each, this electricity is then converted back to a 5V current and gets stored in to a powerbox. So when you'll plug your iPhone in the dock your phone gets charged and in the meanwhile you can listen to some of your favourite tracks."

That last part calls to the Chargeboard's third function, an iPhone boom box. Van den Hout has added an extra component to the underside of the board, between the two axles, a dock speaker. When you dock your iPhone you can play music through the speakers.

According to the specifications, one hour of skating will generate enough energy to charge your phone, and the built-in battery can store enough power to charge your phone eight times over.

Although it's a graduation project, van den Hout would like to take his Chargeboard further. "Chargeboard is now still a prototype in development," he wrote. "If there is a brand, product developer or anyone else interested in Chargeboard it can hopefully be further developed."

Of course no self-respecting skater would be caught dead riding a long board as they tend to be viewed as a tool that allows people who can't skate to sort of hop on the skateboarding culture but in theory this should be able to work on any type of deck with some modifications. 

Contribute to the Kickstarter campaign HERE and start getting that playlist ready!

Thanks to Matt for the tip.