World's smallest emergency mobile phone charger

Ever found yourself running out of battery on your phone while out and about and no power socket in sight?

Two design engineering students from Brunel University London, Doug Stokes and Chris Tait, were faced with coming up with a solution to just such a scenario within 48 hours at a Makeathon run by the UK's Makerversity.

Now The Nipper, the world's smallest emergency charger, which can run off of standard AA batteries is available via Kickstarter.

Explained Doug: "From the design point of view it had to be small enough to fit on a key ring and the production Nipper is no bigger than a couple of Mentos. We also realised that you can lay your hands on a packet of AA batteries 24/7 almost anywhere in the world.

"From that point it was simply a question of engineering a way to get the power from household batteries into a dead phone. The Nipper will work with any AA batteries and can give you up to an hour of talk time or seven hours of standby on most phones with a couple of batteries"

Since graduating in July, the pair have been working round the clock to get the charger ready for its Kickstarter debut.

Added Chris: "The Nipper works, is convenient, lightweight, and anyone who pledges a minimum of £12 ($18, €19) will get one of the first production models."