12th Class Indian Student Invents Shoes To Charge Your Mobile | Hacker News Reader

12th Class Indian Student Invents Shoes To Charge Your Mobile

trak.in

33 pointstrakin28 comments

I know I'll get downvoted by the Indian crowd here on HN, but I feel this needs to be said:

This illustrates the characteristically Indian trait of mindless hero worship. Our media has a tendency to blow such things out of proportion, even if it's immediately apparent to anyone even slightly technically competent that they are definitely not original, or as revolutionary as they are claimed to be.

More examples:

Recent coverage (in one of India's largest newspapers): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Guwahati-te...

Thoroughly debunked: http://technofaq.org/posts/2014/02/unmasked-afreed-islam-rev...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/securi... ("Hacks")

I think it has more to do feeling pride for one's own country. I fail to see how this is "mindless hero worship", rather than a means to push India into the spotlight for their 15 minutes of fame, granted the story makes international headlines.

Now bollywood movies on the other hand........

>> I think it has more to do feeling pride for one's own country.

India has considerably more impressive achievements to be proud of.

>> I fail to see how this is "mindless hero worship"

Of course it is. Some kid does something entirely ordinary (and probably realises that is the case), and the media treats it like the next big thing and calls him a prodigy. (For examples, look at the links I posted.)

>> rather than a means to push India into the spotlight for their 15 minutes of fame, granted the story makes international headlines.

Better unknown than famous like this.

I agree with what you're saying, but I think this is more of an Indian media tactic. No one would know about this student otherwise, so you should be pointing your finger at the reports/journalists to create better content. I suspect this story was aimed at their Indian audience.

This achievement is largely forgettable to our population, but when Indians read this they feel a sense of pride for their fellow people's achievements. I think the Indian media is just exploiting this Indian trait to get more views.

Almost any body who climbs the Mount Everest after the first person did it is also not doing anything original. Yet the difficulties in climbing Mt Everest don't change no matter how many people climb it.

The point is not to invent shoes to charge mobile phones. But to do something to break out opportunity famine, difficult economic situations and social inertia that prevents progress by doing things like this.

Like you mentioned 'Indian Crowd'. Bulk of the 'Indian Crowd' on forums like these probably don't even have the same scenarios or circumstances in life to understand why stuff like this matters to the other people to whom it matters.

Dubious claims as ususal - "Rajesh is now working on a better prototype of the model, wherein mobile or any electric device can be charged without any wires. If the person keeps the mobile in his pockets and just walks, then the battery would be charged wirelessly."

> Dubious claims as ususal

How is it dubious, or how is it dubious as "usual"? He is a student in 12th grade, he tried to make sth and then he dreams to make sth more, sth better. Maybe he will fail or maybe he'll succeed but what is dubious here?

Ugh, for god's sake please stop submitting stuff like this.

care to elaborate on what's wrong with it, considering it's being upvoted?

In college, one of my physics professors put it this way: Even though someone else may have discovered a law or theorem already, doesn't make independently reasoning it out and getting to the same conclusion any less of an accomplishment.

Good on him for attacking a problem, and for having the wherewithal to attempt more advanced prototypes.

>As per the preliminary reports, this shoe cum charger can light a bulb by placing a battery in the shoes.

What?

i'm guessing (backed up by the photo) that his proof-of-concept is literally a generator in the shoe hooked up to an attached bulb, so that when he walks a bit the bulb lights up.

What about the "cum" in the middle of the sentence?

It's Latin for "with." It's usually used with hyphens to describe something with dual purpose, so it would be more appropriate to spell it "shoe-cum-charger." It's also used in purely Latin phrases like magna cum laude.

extremely common in india, particularly in the phrase sofa-cum-bed.

I knew the Latin meaning. I've honestly never seen it used as a direct replacement for "with" in an otherwise all-English phrase though.

ha! might as well have the headline: '12th class student charges his phone from thin air' and then reveal in the article it is just made by placing a battery in thin air...

why put the worst possible interpretation on things? it was pretty clear to me that the battery was rechargeable and that the shoe was charging it.

The article is horrible. Its a report on a high schools student's project at best. Its like India longs for greatness and the media is desperate for some one to do something big.

Mobile Or Smartphone? If It's Smartphone then it's a great idea because In India people are demanding big screen which comes with 2000mAh (5-inch screen) So Smartphone user are facing issue with battery. If it's mobile charger also the scenario is great because in India we have 900 million mobile device, which include 80 Million smartphone as of now. Last but not the least This setup will help India in a long run, This boy need good team member to have his company.

As mentioned in article not new but i kind of like parallel products developed. another one is http://trak.in/innovation/indian-school-girl-invents-washing...

But i would rather find solution or imlement solution why power is getting cut even famous places ulike Chennai/Bangalore on regular basis. I know one reason which poor labor work.

Also, I would like the title of the article to be changed. IMO, whatever achieved, according to the article, is not an invention. It is just another usage of a dynamo.

I agree, the title may be a little over the top. But, see the guy, he is a student living in a place where they do not have much facilities or exposure. They were cut-off from the world, with no lights etc. For most of us urban folks, it may just be another interesting thing, but for them, it could be a communication enabler!..

Awesome! I wanted to make shoes that use piezoelectricity to charge batteries in the heel or just keep warm. This kid did it!

Sounds like a fairly inefficient way to turn food into electricity. Surely it would be cheaper, faster, and more efficient to just have something like a small hand crank to generate the electricity.

The point of this kind of thing is to generate electricity form something that you would be doing anyway even if it did not generate electricity.

Sure, but to generate x watts probably requires the walker to output x more watts than normal while walking.

Feels really good to see innovations at school level, even if it's mostly inspiration. The practical application of what we study has been lacing in Indian education system.

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