A vending machine that charges your cellphone battery

Would you pay $3 for such a service?

Galéa Technologies has created Cogib, a huge cylinder with four doors and a touch screen that will completely charge any of the vast majority of the world's cellphones and a great many other devices in 20 minutes.

Ben Hunt wrote about this interesting new technology in today's Financial Times.

The company is targeting shopping malls, airports and the like as its first locations for the machines.

Here's the Financial Times story.

No Power, No Problem

The [Cebit] award for the best recharging technology must go to Galea Technologies for the simple-but-brilliant Cogib, two of which were handily located in the Cebit press centre. (Well, it was handy for hacks).

The Cogib (www.cogib.com), a huge cylinder with four doors and a touch screen on the top, may not be much to look at, and is about as portable as a grand piano, but it fulfils its promise of recharging the vast majority of the world’s mobile phone models and a great many other devices in a quick, easy and secure fashion.

The four doors hide four secure vaults, containing a variety of power leads, that rise out of the machine when the user tells the Cogib through the touch screen which model needs recharging.

If a chamber is free the user simply connects the phone and instructs the door to close and lock.

It can then only be reopened using a using a four digit code of the user’s choosing.

On the inside of Cogib is a patented technology which speeds up the recharging process and should fill most batteries in just 20 minutes.

Certainly it did the job on my K700, the battery of which was just under a quarter charged when I put it in and was very nearly full when I removed it about 11 minutes later.

Aside from the advantage of not worrying about carrying a charger and then finding a power outlet, the beauty of this particular system is that the user can then wander off and do other things for 20 minutes while the phone recharges in the knowledge that the handset is safe.

Given that there are more than 1bn mobile phones in circulation and almost a billion fewer public recharging facilities - most of which are not secure and usually involve leaving the handset in full view - it is somewhat surprising that nobody has addressed this market before.

There are potential problems. I didn’t take the opportunity to test what would happen if I could not remember my code when I returned.

The security guard didn’t look the type to succumb to any combination of charm, begging or shouting and the unit itself looked impervious to any attempted entry-by-axe, even if the guard could be distracted for a few seconds.

But everybody who has been away from their charger at a moment when the battery is about to die will recognise the appeal of the Cogib and believe Galea’s claim that people would be prepared to pay about $3 per charge.

Public areas such as shopping malls, travel hubs and conference centres must be prime contenders to take this type of unit.

Galea has already begun rolling the units out in airports and other public spaces in its home market of France and intends to enter other markets soon.



Should it do so it might be worth having a think about its somewhat drab name.