I used to have a rubber raft that required a foot pump to inflate. It took a lot of foot motion to get that raft inflated, and I never really thought about using that energy to power a mobile device.

It would appear that the UK cellular company Orange has figured out how to channel the power of a good idea. In fact, this device can “generate enough energy to power five minutes of call time in the time it takes to inflate a pillow”.

One can only assume that the pillow is a regular sized pillow, but I wish they would have used a measurement that would have used the number of actual pumps. As I recall, it took about a half-hour of foot pumps to fully inflate my two-man raft, so who knows how long it would take for that precious 5 minutes of talk time.

The press release says that it is “no bigger than a packet of Wet Wipes” for a size comparison. Clearly, this Orange Power Pump must be targeted for parents, who know what it is like to travel with Wet Wipes. Believe me, I know this. For those who don’t know, the actual measurements are 154mm x 129mm x 47mm. Now those are some precise stats.

Orange plans to display this Power Pump at the Glastonbury 2009 Festival, but there is no word on a price. Personally, I think that foot pumps are probably the way to go as far as pollution free mobile power is concerned.

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