It happens to the best of us.

You’re out and about, streaming music,taking selfies, and before you know it, that low-battery percentage has crept up on you. Oh, what’s that? You wanted to use your phone to help navigate your way back home at 3AM? Tough break kid.

Unless of course, you’ve got the CrankCase. This fresh-faced Indiegogo offering claims to juice up your phone simply by cranking the handle on its rear, and works in a similar fashion to wind up torches and radios, by using an in-built electric dynamo to generate electricity.

Creator Ampware states that you can get an additional 40 minutes of smartphone life from a single one minute charge, while five minutes will serve up an extra three hours of use.

It sounds very promising and almost too good to be true, but if it delivers then this could be a festival fan/camper’s dream come true. The above battery life estimates are based on ‘normal usage’, which presumably doesn’t include blasting out 3D games or streaming back-to-back YouTube videos.

Supported smartphones are currently limited to the iPhone 5, 5s and 6, although other model types are in the works. If you’re feeling charitable, you can even connect other smartphones or USB-chargeable gadgets to the case and crank up their juice too.

And if you don’t feel like spoiling your sleek iPhone with a bulky case, then there’s the CrankBox option which is a separate dedicated charging unit.

Ampware is aiming to raise $50,000 on Indiegogo, where you can pick up a CrankCase for $50 (R610), or a CrankBox for $30 (R365).

Final retail prices will be $130 (R1,580) and $70 (R850) respectively, so if you’re committed to cranking, you might want to get in early, ahead of the October release date.

Source: via Gizmodo