Are you ready to rock? Good. Micasa Lab's iRock is a rocking chair with a built-in generator, speakers and a dock for an iPad or iPhone:
The iRock is a product that explores how furniture can interact with technology and actually support the power for this technology. Movement is energy and to collect as much of this energy as possible is one of our future challenges. The laws of physics dictate how movement and friction constantly creates a vast amount of energy that in most cases is lost. iRock is a attempt to collect some of this energy and put it to real use. If you use iRock for 60 minutes you can recharge an iPad 3 to 35%.
The main challenge was to get the generator working efficient. After trying out several designs we finally got it right and with a set of gears we're now able to get sufficient power to charge the built in battery that in it's turn are charging the iPad/iPhone. A concept we were working on for quite some time was the use of rubber bands and springs to increase the effect of the movement but we ended up with a solution using a winding mechanism that is geared up to run the generator.
Link -via Born Rich | Official Website