Now that's powerful music! Percussion shaker generates an hour's worth of charge from just 12 minutes of movement
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From weepy ballads to stirring instrumentals, many pieces of music have been described as powerful or moving.
But now there's a musical instrument that actually generates power when it is played - and it could provide light in poor and remote communities.
The percussion shaker, called Spark, generates electricity that can charge a phone, or power a lamp after just 12 minutes of movement.
A bright idea: A musical instrument called Spark (pictured) generates power when it is played, and 12 minutes of shaking generates enough power to light a home for an hour, or to charge a phone. It has a USB port so that a lighting strip can be attached (also pictured)
HOW DOES SPARK WORK?
When Spark is shaken, a magnet moves backwards and forwards through the centre of a solenoid - a coil of copper wire.
A current is induced in the loops of wire and each time the magnet slides through, it charges up a rechargeable battery.
Because the energy is stored, Spark can be played in the morning and the electricity generated, used later in the dark.
Around 12 minutes of shaking generates enough power to light someone's home for an hour.
It is the brainchild of Sudha Kheterpal, who has been a percussionist with dance band Faithless for 15 years.
She hopes her innovation - which she's raising money to put into production on crowd funding site Kickstarter – will improves the lives of people in Kenya, where three quarters of the population have no access to electricity.
The heart-shaped instrument is full of beads that make a noise when shaken, but play an important electricity-generating role, as well as making noise.
The motion forces a magnet to move through a copper coil to make a current, which charges up a battery.
More than 12 minutes of shaking can light up someone's home for an hour.
'I've tested the prototype with a number of different communities in Kenya and have proven it is incredibly useful to people. Children, teachers and village elders have all embraced it,' she wrote on Kickstarter.
The heart-shaped instrument is full of beads that make a noise when shaken, but also play an important electricity-generating role. It has been trialled in Kenya (pictured) and its creator hopes Spark will let children do homework when it is dark and charge phones to connect families and communities
A USB port on the side of the Spark allows people to charge a mobile phone or plug in a lamp, and during tests in Kenya, this proved to be safer than using a kerosene lamp.
'During testing, the people who used Spark said it was useful because they had light in the evenings which they used for doing homework, household chores and for lighting their way home in the dark,' Kheterpal continued.
'Spark will enable children and their families to be safer by eliminating the need of kerosene for light for example, and by providing light for women and girls in areas where rape is a huge problem.'
The design is based on the shape of a heart, but it gets its geometric look because Kheterpal was also inspired by flint stones, which are used to create a spark and 'give birth to a powerful new source of energy.'
So far, just over half of the money required to ship 1,000 Sparks to Kenya has been raised and people can buy t-shirts, tickets to a special Faithless concert as well as a Spark assembly kit, for £150, which will be manufactured next year.
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