Soofa, or Solar Powered Benches are Coming to the Bean!

Image Courtesy of slashgear.com

 

 

If you are anything like me (and don’t lie, you are), you are all over the place at any given time. You have people to see and places to be and there is one faithful companion by your side: your phone.  Unlike you, your phone can’t pop an Advil and shot gun a 5 Hour Energy…because it’s a phone, it doesn’t have money to buy any of that. Anyway, you’re running on fumes and your phone is on 20% battery life… and by now you are freaking out! You keep checking to make sure it hasn’t died which doesn’t help your case.

 

Let me set up this fantasy world. Close your eyes - It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon, you have just gotten out of work and are ready to meet you friends for a drink. You start to walk through the Boston Commons and grab a seat to check your text messages. In this world you are smarter than texting and walking. You grab a seat and realize, “F%^K! I’m at 10% and it’s only5:15pm!  I need a new phone! This stupid piece of...” You take out your USB phone connector, from your purse or cargo shorts, and plug it into the bench to charge your phone. YES, in this world you can charge your phone on a bench. NOW OPEN YOUR EYES! That fantasy is now a reality.

 

You heard, well read, me correctly, Boston is installing these new benches called “Soofa” or solar-powered benches. Don’t ask me about the name, I’m just reporting on it. The benches were created by MIT (of course), are powered by Verizon (wait, who has Verizon?) and Mother Nature.

 

Soofa's mission states:

"More than half of the world’s population lives an urban lifestyle. We are connected anytime, anywhere, eager for location- based information. We design small-scale solar solutions for the urban environment.

With our modular approach to smart urban furniture we offer charging and sensing hubs as a service. Our core value is to help cities, campuses, corporations and resorts to update their urban context for the mobile generation. We change environments."

These benches are coming to a park near you within the next couple of weeks starting with Titus Sparrow Park in the South End, the Boston Common, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The “Soofa”(ugh, THAT NAME), does other things, but I don’t really care because it will charge my phone before I get my drink and my two step on and that’s all that matters.

 

P.S. Have a suggestion for a park to get their own “Soofa”?  Well, send your request by July 11th by logging online to bit.ly/bosbench or tweeting the location to @newurbanmechs. U.S. residents can submit ideas for names of the Soofa’s in each park through Twitter to @mysoofa or via soofa.co.