sOccket

More about sOccket

For cooking, heating, and light, rural households in low-income countries use kerosene lamps, which cause respiratory illnesses that account for the largest percentage of childhood deaths in developing nations. According to World Bank estimates, breathing these fumes is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Our solution is the sOccket - a portable source of energy that capitalizes on the popularity of soccer to address this lack of electricity.

The sOccket is a soccer ball with the capacity to harness the energy of interaction with the ball during game-play, incorporating already-mature impact/motion technology, used in shake-to-charge flashlights, inside the soccer ball. Our preliminary testing shows that 45 minutes of kicking the ball the can light a camping lamp for over three hours! Team sOccket hopes to use existing infrastructure and provide communities, churches, and organizations with the sOccket to promote health education, team building, life-skills training, and much-needed electricity. sOccket will serve as an advocacy tool and a symbol of empowerment, bringing the developing world’s “power problem” to the attention of the developed world, prompting greater investment and support for the issue.