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Surabaya. Soon you won’t have to worry about running out of battery on your cellphone when out and about, even if there isn’t an electrical socket available.

The solution comes from a mobile charger developed by a team led by Harus Laksana Guntur, an engineering lecturer at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) in East Java capital Surabaya. But unlike solar or battery-based chargers, this invention uses people’s energy to recharge cellphones.

The innovative gadget converts kinetic energy into electricity, which means that charge is generated every time you move.

The prototype comes in a clear fiberglass box that can clip onto a belt. When it moves, the main components — a dynamo and magnet built into a coil — produce induction that generates electricity, working much like those shake flashlights.

An important feature is a small rechargeable battery, which stores the charge.

“Actually, the electricity generated by the coil can directly power the cellphone. Unfortunately, the current is unstable and tends to make the phone hang,” said Muhammad Rudy Hermanto, the ITS student who invented the charger.

It is an idea Harus wants to develop, as he and his team of students continue work on a number of inventions utilizing kinetic energy.

“Actually, the mobile charger is simply a prototype,” he said. “In the future, we would like to collaborate with the military to develop chargers for their communication devices.”

Harus said such a charger was well-suited for military purposes. In warfare situations, he explained, soldiers would have difficulty recharging their electrical equipment in the jungle, especially when they have to move about frequently.

A kinetic charger, however, would make that possible, as body movements have the potential to produce up to 150 watts, which could power a computer or about 70 BlackBerry smartphones.

In one test, in which the wearer was walking at about four kilometers per hour, the prototype mobile charger completely charged a cellphone in about five minutes.

“The faster the wearer moves, the faster the charging process because their walking speed will affect the speed of the magnet’s movements inside the coil generating electricity,” Harus said.

The ITS team plans to eventually make the mobile charger as compact as a matchbox. Its inventors are in the process of filing for a patent and hope to mass produce the device in the future.

In the meantime, they are looking for an investor to help further development.