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Solar-powered Handbag
karvind writes "BBC reports that a student, Rosanna Kilfedder, from Brunel University has designed solar-powered handbag to make finding keys and other items at the bottom of a bag easier. The handbag, dubbed Sun Trap, uses a solar cell attached to the outside of the bag to trap energy from sunlight. The energy is stored in an internal battery which lights up the lining. The lining is made from an electroluminescent material and is lit up by the bag's zip which acts as a switch. The bag goes dark when the zip is closed or after 15 seconds if it is accidentally left open. A secondary use of the portable battery is as an emergency charger for mobile phones and other wireless devices."
Somehow I just don't see how adding a battery to a purse is going to make things easier to find. You know that women are just going to have one more thing in the purse to move around, and there's going to be too much in there for the light to actually penetrate... I mean seriously, most women I know have a double decker bus worth of stuff in there. It's a wonder they all don't lean when they walk. ;)
Cue Lady Bracknell imitations throughout offices the world over.
Weirdly Lady Bracknell is still alive and has her own blog!
Bus error in your favour. Collect 200kB
Carry a proximity transponder in your pocket, so if your bag is nicked it screams "help me, I'm being blagged!"
Argh.
Aaargh!
On one hand, it's a gadget, so I have to get one.
On the other, it's a handbag, and I'll not be seen dead with one.
What's a geek to do?
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
Additionally, I though light was supposed to be unable to escape from a black hole...
Argh.
If a true slashdotting hasn't yet occured you can see in the pic that the pattern of the light source is stars or something similar.
It won't sell well amongst American woman unless they replace the stars with Louis Vitton/Gucci/Burberry/Prada symbols. And to be more accurate they need to be fake Louis Vitton/Gucci/Burbery/Prada symbols.
...when will this tech translate over to our wallets? :)
:(
As a man you should know that it will effect your wallet the moment it becomes the hit status symbol. she buys one and your wallet is lighter
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
This will be great for all those female slashdo...
I mean, it'll be a great gift for some slashdotter's girlfr...
Why is this article here, again?
I want one of these for my jeans, so when I unzip them, the light of god will be cast unto all.
If this is for a woman's handbag, I think it would be much more sensible to attach something to her jaw and get mechanical energy from there as she talks. Because the sun eventually burns out, you know.
But for the handbag, why not simply make a material that is opaque from the outside and transparent from the inside, which lets light in but not out...?
No, bad idea. All those trapped photons would build up, and when the handbag was opened they would burst out like a photon torpedo, incinerating the woman. Oh the humanity!
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
I certainly hope you can come up with a better reason for women in engineering than the invention of a silly gadget of dubious value.
Women have a lot more than that to offer engineering firms. For example, they prevent company picnics from being complete sausage fests.
We're geeks, we never go outside. How could this thing work?
Bah, now if it got its energy from, I don't know, the motion of the bag while walking...
Wait a minute, that wouldn't work either. Damn.
Ok, so you've been waiting for an invention like this to get your stapler and your pencils back from your backpack ?
Here's a trick my mom taught me: You can put a backpack upside down, and the things in it will nicely fall on the ground so you can sort them and find the beloved object !
This backpack feature was invented a guy named Newton, who could never find his apples in his bag, or something like that...
It's kind of scary to know that purses well known for their quality of absorbing (and keeping) all kind of stuff, such as candy wrappers, loose change, lipsticks of all kinds etc.etc. have now achieved the ultimate power and can trap the Sun itself!
when inattentive, overly permissive, or just adventurous DMs allowed Continual Light to be cast on a Bag of Holding, and they held about as much as most women in my family manage to hold in theirs. I think my mother-in-law has an entire convenience store in hers.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
...would be so much more useful.
When wearing this bag, adds darkvision and the quickdraw feat when taking items from the bag.