Is That a Solar-Powered Socket in Your Pocket?

There’s been a pretty cool design piece circulating the tumblrsphere in the past few days. It’s called The Window Socket and is designed by Kyuho Song and Boa Oh. It’s a solar powered portable plug socket, which allows you to plug in any of your devices into a sun-lit window of a house, car, plane, ship, or anything really. The design of the plug is simple and pretty – it has solar panels on the back, a suction plate to attach it to a transparent surface, and a converter.

I couldn’t find any additional information about he designers or the device except a comment under a blog post left supposedly by Kyuho Song:

The window socket design in 2010. And has completed the registration of a patent. Technical investigation for the mass production of the prototype. The technology is possible. However, the use of electricity and charge time is not efficient. But soon, believe it will be resolved technically.

The idea and the design appeal to me a lot, but since I’m not that good at physics I wonder (and I hope Big Think readers could help me with the answer), could a device like this truly be practical? How would you put it to use? I don’t imagine it powering blow dryers or TV sets, but could it charge cell phones in Africa, for example? Or could one plug in a night lamp or recharge an mp3 player (as it acts like a battery as well) when camping?

Source: yankodesign