A similar idea appeared over 20 years ago as joke. More specifically as a Chindogu, the comical Japanese artform of creating almost but not quite useful inventions to solve everyday problems.
I remember seeing a few clips about Chindogu as a child: the ones I recall most are the motorized fork for spaghetti (just causes a mess because you can't turn it off), and the solar-powered flashlight (of course, without any kind of rechargeable batteries).
http://www.asiaone.com/static/multimedia/gallery/120706_japi...