Sunglasses That Can Charge Your Phone?

     Now here is one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?” products. Sayalee Kaluskar, an advertising wunderkind in India, had the genius idea of harnessing solar power through sunglasses to charge a phone. Google Glass should really take note because Sayalee’s glasses don’t make you look like an absolute idiot. Wisely, she is working with Ray-Ban on this concept.

      The idea is simple: The arms of the standard-issue (and classic) Ray Ban Wayfarer have been hacked to carry photovoltaic cells wired to a battery hidden within the plastic. The cells charge the battery while you’re wearing your glasses in the sun, and when you head inside the arms pop off to reveal a microUSB or Lightening connector that plug into your phone and give its battery a shot of juice. Brilliant!

     Each arm of the sunglasses houses a custom PCB that converts the current and uses it to run, in this case, two small displays that show temperature and brightness. Not sure why you’d need a display to tell you how bright it is out there, but hey, it’s a research project.

After supplying the displays, the cells generate about 200 milliwatts of excess power. That’s not going to do much for your phone, but it will run or trickle charge a low-power device like a step counter, wireless transmitter or small speaker. They work in dimmer light, too, like that of a home or office. In this case there isn’t even a battery in the assembly — it’s all accomplished with the energy collected in real time.