Orange unveils an intriguing Glastonbury concept every year and this one’s a doozy: the Orange Sound Charge t-shirt, a gadget-friendly garment that will charge your tech with sound. It’s exactly the kind of combination of barmy and brilliant we love.
While you can’t get your hands on an Orange Sound Charge yet, the firm will be testing the t-shirt in the field (literally) during Glastonbury to find out which acts’ power chords deliver the most juice. Read on to find out how the Orange Sound Charge does it…
Using piezoelectric film, which is usually found lurking in modern speakers, the Orange Sound Charge acts like an flexible microphone stretched over your torso absorbing sound waves. They’re then converted by quartz crystals into an electric charge which is stored in a battery ready to power your gadgetry.
The team behind the t-shirt predict that sound levels at Glastonbury will average out at around 80dB and generate 6 watt hours of power over the weekend. That’s theoretically enough to charge two basic mobiles or one of power-chugging beast from our best smartphone list.
While Orange assures us that the gadgetry built into the Orange Sound Charge is removable so you can sling it in the wash, we’re curious to see how it fares if the rain gods make it pour down in Pilton. Can the piezoelectric guts survive the rigours of Glastonbury weather? We’re not so sure.
You can see the Orange Sound Charge prototype in action in the video below. Would you rely on your t-shirt to keep your kit powered up?
Out TBC | £NA | Orange
