Crank power! This iPhone case lets you charge by hand

This could come in handy for iPhone owners caught in a power outage, or who forgot to bring their chargers.

 

A company has started a campaign on crowdsourcing site Kickstarter to make an iPhone case that doubles as a hand-cranked charger, tech site Mashable said.

 

"When your phone's battery begins to drain, you can easily pop out the concealed hand crank from the side of the case and begin to power it back up. As you crank the lever, a charge is generated," Mashable said. 

 

Dubbed the Mipwr Dynamo, the case uses electromagnetic induction, harnessing electricity using a magnetic field.

 

“The magnet is generally encapsulated with coils of wires to transfer this [electricity] to a battery storage device,” it quoted the team behind the product.

 

It said the team claimed one minute of pumping can generate some 30 seconds of talk time.

 

A user can also pump the push lever to produce 30 seconds of talk/text for one minute of pumping, enough to make a distress call or text.

 

"With limited power-source options, that one-minute effort doesn't seem like such a big deal," it noted, adding the device could be handy in case of a disaster such as a storm.

 

However, Mashable also noted using electromagnetic induction is not new, and has been used in almost all products.

 

Presently, the Mipwr Dynamo prototype is for an iPhone 4/4S, though Mashable said the designs for an iPhone 5 are already completed. – KDM, GMA News