Filipino Teen Creates Shoes That Can Charge a Phone by Walking

A 15-year-old with an insatiable thirst for science has developed shoes that can charge your phone or any USB-powered device by simply walking.

Angelo Casimiro lives in the Philippines, a country still recovering from last fall's Typhoon Haiyan.

"A lot of people are still suffering from poverty," he says in a YouTube video in which he demonstrates his invention.

 Some people have no access to electricity, he adds. For them, "a simple source of light is a big," he says.

Now Angelo is creating a new way to generate power. He placed two pairs of physio-electric discs on the insole of each shoe. The discs produce energy when any type of pressure is placed on them. That energy is then channeled to a USB port, which an electronic device can plug in to.

"My insole generator does not use coils, motors, magnets, or anything that involves moving parts," he explains. "We have a pair (of physio-electric discs) mounted back-to-back. When you make back-to-back pairs, you're able to harvest twice the power."

Ralphie Aversa