In the era of dual-functionality clothing, including solar-powered bikinis , air-conditioned clothing and air-purifying apparel , it was only a matter of time before someone invented a water-purifying raincoat -- which, in this case, is called the Raincatch.

This multipurpose raincoat collects rain through its collar, filters it down the back of the coat with charcoal filters, purifies it in a chemical process and stores the water around the hips of the coat, where its weight will be most comfortable to the wearer.

(Charcoal, which is carbon, filters water because it has millions of tiny pores, giving it a lot of surface area with which to bond to odors and substances in the water. Many water filters, such as the popular Brita brand, use carbon.)

The coat, designed by students Hyeona Yang and Joseph Noble, of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, designed the prototype you see in the video below.

And hey, it's not as whimsical as it seems. Remember that climate change will likely cause more hurricanes , which, as many East Coast residents recently found out, will also cause lots of flooding.

In times of torrential floods that could disrupt local water supplies, it might be handy to have an alternate way to purify all that water pouring from the sky.

Raincatch from Hyeona Yang on Vimeo.

via: CNET

photo: screenshot

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com