Current Affairs

Orange has announced the launch of a mobile phone charger prototype that is powered by dance energy. Orange says the ‘Orange Dance Charge’ is the result of months of research into alternate, sustainable energy sources to power mobile phones during summer music festivals.
Working with renewable energy company GotWind, which was also responsible for last year’s ‘Orange Wind Charge’ and this year’s ‘Orange ReCharge Pod’, Orange commissioned the research into a kinetic energy, portable phone charger that would harness the energy created by festival revellers dancing to their favourite bands to ensure a clean and renewable energy source.
Orange says that “while the research of the Orange and GotWind team is still in its infancy and continues to be developed”, it  has built fully-functioning prototype models of the Dance Charge that will be tested at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, taking place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, next weekend.
The Dance Charge prototype weighs in at 180grams and measures 4.25” x 2.5”, approximately the same size as a pack of cards and the same weight as a mobile phone. The Dance Charge unit comes encased in an elasticated, black, neoprene strap with Velcro attachments which is attached over the wearer’s bicep in a similar fashion to a runner’s arm-mounted mp3 player.
As the user moves their arms along to the music – a specially designed system of weights and magnets, similar to that found in kinetic energy watches, creates an electrical current which provides a top-up of charge to a storage battery. So while festival goers are out dancing to their favourite bands, the charger stores dance generated power in the reservoir battery, ready for when they return to their tent each night to recharge their phone. Heavy metal fans will presumably get more out of the device than their folk-loving friends.
Orange says it also has plans to showcase The Dance Charge with an interactive Dance Charging Man who will help recharge mobile phones during the festival through the power of dance! The Dance Charging Man will only require one form of payment - a dance with the person who needs their phone re-charged.