“The old familiar park bench is great for relaxing,” Jason O. Gilbert reports for Yahoo Tech. “Soon, it could also be great for energizing — your smartphone, that is.”
“At the White House’s first ever Maker Faire on Wednesday, the startup Changing Environments will show off the Soofa, a bench that can charge your cellphone using the solar power it collects throughout the day,” Gilbert reports. “The Soofa, an play on ‘smart urban furniture,’ features a visible solar panel, a battery, and two USB slots, where bench-sitters and the desperately underpowered alike can plug in their smartphones and other devices.”
“The Soofa isn’t just about phone charging: It also contains noise and air sensors embedded in the bench’s ‘brain,'” Gilbert reports. “Those sensors constantly collect data and beam it over Verizon’s 4G network to Soofa’s website, which will let people know where there is an available bench, in a quiet location, with fresh air.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]