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He’s walking on SolePower (and generating electricity)

By Chloe Tse, June 20, 2014 at 7:36 pm

A teenager just invented a smart shoe insole that allows folks to generate electricity by walking.

While some teens are busy ‘snapchatting’ selfies, 15-year-old Angelo Casimiro from the Philippines is thinking about the energy crisis and coming up with inventions such as a ‘SolePowered’ smart shoe that produces enough electricity to charge small USB devices, according to IFLScience.

With piezoelectric materials and inspiration from his late grandpa, Casimiro came up with this neat concept to enter the 2014 Google Science Fair.

He’s 15-years-old and his interests are robotics and working with renewable energies like wind and solar power. Amazing, right? Restoring faith in the youth of today, folks like Casimiro have the kind of thinking that could lead to a more sustainable future.

Let’s talk about SolePower

This is essentially electricity generated by footsteps. Casimiro has come up with a way to produce electricity by walking — as he focused on an insole invention to submit for a science fair — he’s taken on the challenge of creating a slip-on insole that can produce enough electricity to charge batteries and/or USB devices.

“This can supply electricity for personal devices, specifically if you live in remote areas where electricity isn’t available,” Casimiro points out in his YouTube video, “It can charge flashlights, phones, radios and any other USB.”

By using a generic USB powerbank, piezoelectric transducers, rectifier diodes, hookup wires, adhesives and an old pair of shoes — this young visionary has come up with an inspiring science experiment.

“There are other power-generating, in-shoe concepts. For example, SolePower stores the energy released in each of our steps as usable electrical power; the technology works like a hand-crank flashlight,” reports IFLScience, “Another idea relies on a technique called reverse electrowetting: converting energy of metal droplets in the soles into electrical current.”