New motivation for couch potatoes. Take a walk, charge your mobile phone.

Imagine keeping your mobile phone more or less perpetually charged just by walking out of the house in the morning. Is that a bit of green technology you'd be willing to spring for?

Well sometime in mid-to-late 2009, start-up M2E Power says it will team up with at least one major manufacturer/distributor of mobile phone technology to provide an external charger that uses motion-producing electromagnetic fields and energy-harvesting concepts to provide a little extra power boost for your mobile handset. Or pretty much any other device you might have on your person.

The way the M2E charger will work is by converting the kinetic energy created when someone walks around into clean energy. Regan Warner-Rowe, director of business development for M2E, won't reveal which companies might be involved in releasing the first products. In theory, however, for every six hours of motion, one of these chargers will provide an additional 30 to 60 minutes talk time. The devices will cost between $25 and $40, she says. What's more, with the proper adapter, you might be able to extend the playtime of your camera, global positioning system, MP3 player or other portable gadgets. The charger would come with an optional AC plug option to make it more versatile. In theory, this could become the only charger you'd need to take on the road.

Now that's what I call "local motion."

Here's a little bit more information about the strategy.

I first wrote about M2E's business development plan late last year. For that background, as well as some of the skepticism raised in your comments, visit this link.