A pair of socks fuelled with urine (Picture: PA)

Well, this is one way of charging your mobile phone.

It involves wearing a pair of socks that create energy when urine is pumped through them when someone walks.

Scientists at the Bristol BioEnergy Centre at the University of the West of England embedded the socks with miniaturised microbial fuel cells (MFCs).

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How much do you need extra battery? (Picture: PA)

This system successfully ran a wireless transmission board, which was able to send the message ‘First Wearable MFC’ every two minutes to the computer-controlled receiver.

Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, who led the research, said it opens up possibilities for using urine to power wearable devices.



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Urine is pumped through by walking (Picture: PA)

‘Having already powered a mobile phone with MFCs using urine as fuel, we wanted to see if we could replicate this success in wearable technology,’ he said.

‘We also wanted the system to be entirely self-sufficient, running only on human power – using urine as fuel and the action of the foot as the pump.

‘This work opens up possibilities of using waste for powering portable and wearable electronics.’

The experiment was published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Bristol BioEnergy Centre has also recently launched a prototype urinal in partnership with Oxfam that uses pee-power technology to light cubicles in refugee camps.

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