Pocket inductive charger

I received some very cozy fuzzy pants for Christmas. The running joke was how static-y they would be on my hairy legs (usually an issue with polar fleece and derivative materials). Half jokingly, I said I should try to develop a charger for my smartphone that worked off of static electricity in my pants.

While perhaps possible (and entirely impractical) that bred another idea. Our houses are rife with electromagnetic fields – how much charging power could one extract inductively with a pocket-sized coil just by walking through our own homes? And, would it be enough to provide a worthwhile amount of power to a modern smartphone?

I have a feeling the answer is “no” to that last one. Perhaps if a coil ran the full length of the pants, and one continually walked through the house, you might get enough… but that doesn’t sound like a typical North American lifestyle to me.

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