There’s a lot of energy to be harnessed by that big glowing ball of gas in the sky, and the most obvious beneficiary of that energy are the gadgets that litter our day to day lives. But how do you get the power from the sun to your gadget? This Kickstarter project is quite possibly the perfect answer.
Dubbed B-Squares, the project is the work of a couple of guys from Seattle playing with green energy projects. Essentially, B-squares are a modular gadget system of squares that magnetically connect to one another to share energy. Or, as described on the Kickstarter page:
B-Squares is a 3D modular electronics system with an emphasis on (but not limited to) solar power and expandable energy storage. Each Square has a magnetic contact on each of the corners which allows the Squares to easily snap together without wires. The magnetic contacts are also used to transmit electric signals between the Squares. This design allows users to quickly assemble Squares into arrays, with power flowing through the array via the corner contact, without wiring or soldering. Also, due to the use of multiple magnetic contacts on each Square, the overall circuit of the array can quickly be changed simply by rotating one of the Squares – for instance, the color of the LED Square can change with a flip or a rotation.
The beauty of the system is twofold – firstly, each square is designed with microsuction techniques that allow them to be stuck on windows (which is convenient for capturing sunlight) and secondly because it can be expanded to power pretty much anything you want. The original project has an iPhone connector, but there could easily be squares designed for other smartphones and tablets.
With 18 days to go on the Kickstarter project, it’s already received $92,656 in pledges, more than tripling the required $25,000 to get B-Squares off the ground. It’s an amazing idea and will hopefully become a big success.
[Kickstarter – Thanks Matthew!]