A tiny emergency phone charger named the Nipper and designed by two Brunel students scooped professionals to win the national Direct Line “Everyday Fix” competition.
The tiny device turns ordinary household batteries from AAA to D into a source of emergency power using a device which final-year design students Doug Stokes and Chris Tait hope will be as small as a couple of Polo mints by the time it hits the shops.
Said Doug: “The working prototype is already pretty small – we’re pretty certain it’s smaller than anything else on the market.
“We wanted something that you can always have with you as almost everyone has had an issue with a phone battery on its last legs when you are nowhere near a mains socket.
“But you can pick up batteries almost anywhere. With the Nipper you pop in any round battery and from a single AA you’ll get around an hour’s talk time or as much as seven hours on standby.”
Doug and Chris will now get professional mentoring and support as part of their prize before the Nipper is crowd-funded via Kickstarter. They beat teams from some of the UK’s leading design consultancies in the close-fought contest which went to a public vote.