So far a few of my “Power To The People” ideas have been borderline annoying in their design and functionality. I’m afraid that trend will continue here. Advocacy for a greener planet often needs to be invasive in nature!

Plugged-in chargers for mobile devices continue to draw power when their corresponding device is not attached. If you own a phone, MP3 player, or PDA, you are guilty of leaving your charger plugged-in the outlet for days…weeks…months! Guilty. Yes, that is your cue to lower your head in shame for a moment.

But it’s not entirely your fault. The frequency at which we need to charge these devices will incite people to create a permanent charge station of sorts. And if people are one thing, it is habitual. I’m just going to charge my phone in a few days, may as leave this charger in the outlet.

Because these chargers are drawing power, why not put it to productive use? As soon as the charger detects the device is not attached, it could display a blinking light, and emit a repeating beep sound. This reminder would continue until the User unplugged the charger.

In practicality, the blinking light and chime is a very attainable design. Better yet, people are familiar with this sort of behavior, as cars have this type of functionality when you leave the keys in the ignition, or fail to fasten your seat belt.

You could even go a step further and have an alert to inform you the device is now fully charged. I’m sure a few mobile devices have some kind way to inform the User of this. But I wouldn’t mind seeing the charger do this as well.

I owned a battery charger that had light indicators that went off when it was done charging, but I never knew when this occurred. The light was handy, but a chime or signal would have complimented this feature immensely.

The charger should be programmed to have the reminder delayed 10+ seconds after the device was removed, to give the owner a chance to unplug the charger without being deluged by light and sound.

A more elaborate design: A built-in powered coil/spring that would enable the charger to unplug itself from the outlet after a short period of time.