Boston Brings Out Solar-Powered ‘Smart Benches’ To Recharge Devices At City Parks

Sometimes, you just never know where technology is going to wind up next. Walking through a park, would you ever expect that a simple bench would be able to charge your phone? That's a reality that's soon to come to some Boston parks, thanks to "Soofas", solar-powered benches.

Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh greatly supports the initiative, saying, "Your cellphone doesn’t just make phone calls, why should our benches just be seats?" He goes on to praise Boston's entrepreneurs who are "thinking creatively about sustainability and the next generation of amenities for our residents".

At this point, it's a little unclear exactly what a Soofa design is going to be like, and whether or not someone would need their own cable. What we do know is that these benches will be for more than just charging. They'll be able to connect wirelessly to Verizon's network and relay some useful information, like air quality and noise level.

The first deployment of Soofa benches will happen for the Titus Sparrow Park in Boston's south end. The city is looking for suggestions from the community to help populate other parks with Soofas, so to contribute, hit up bit.ly/bosbench or shoot a Tweet out to @newurbanmechs.

With the way technology's going, it wouldn't be too surprising to see Soofa benches upgraded in five years for wireless charging. Isn't technology great?