sometimes the extraordinary is masked in the ordinary take the humble
soccer ball for example when 26 year old
inventor Jessica O Matthews got a hold
of it you could say it became a thing of
magic located in New York City I met up
with Jessica to find out more about one
very bright idea she came up with a
special kind of soccer ball called the
Soccket and it creates the magic of
battery-powered light where it's needed
most can you tell me a little bit about
what this does sure so this is a
energy-generating soccer ball designed
for the developing world essentially
it's an airless ball so that means that
it doesn't deflate it doesn't need to be
inflated it just is inside of the ball
at the core there's a mechanism that
actually harnesses the kinetic energy
that's the energy of motion that
actually is generated during play and
then stores that power inside the ball
so you can use it as an off-grid power
source a light plugs into a hidden panel
on the ball and daytime play powers
nighttime living and learning so
basically what's happening is we're
harnessing the rotational energy so as
the ball is rolling around the field we
have a mechanism that is actually
rolling with it and with that you have
this pendulum that's turning basically
you can kind of hear it it sounds like a little happy mouse exactly
the pendulum is turning the motor which
is then powering up the rechargeable
lithium ion battery and that's what's
storing up all the power it's actually
transferring the kinetic energy into
electricity so then when you're ready to
go you would just plug it right in and
now you have an LED light that can last
for how long one hour of play can give
you up to three hours of LED light
Jessica's invention was inspired when
she made two key observations one she
saw a very serious lack of access to
sustainable power making studying at
night nearly impossible and two she
noticed that despite difficult living
conditions children seemed transported
when playing soccer happy
and carefree and so Jessica's work on
the Soccket began seven years ago when
she and her co-founder were students at
Harvard always working to perfect the
ball the Soccket is now on its seventh
generation and on this day is undergoing
some impromptu and fun impact testing
and it passed with flying colors
Jessica has seen firsthand how kids
worldwide not only take to the soccer
ball but to the idea of innovation the
light from the Soccket is giving them an
opportunity to read to learn to be inspired and so in addition to the
soccer ball she and her team also
created a curriculum which gets kids
involved in the invention process and so
I thought if we could take all this
confidence and this creativity and all
this passion and harness it literally
and figuratively and actually create
something that didn't just provide
immediate fun but could actually create
that spark that would get people to feel
like they could create the world that
they want while light from the Soccket
illuminates the pages of school books
after dark
it also has switched on a light of
possibility in many young minds
