Wearable Tech
Researchers have developed a prototype of a wireless sensor patch that can monitor your hydration levels and send data to your phone, and it gets all the power it needs from your own body heat.
Wearable technology is becoming more of a reality everyday. One of the big limitations remains how to power these tiny devices efficiently and for extended periods of use. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) recently a prototype of a wireless sensor patch that can monitor your body's hydration levels and send data to your phone was shown off. The device gets all the power it needs just from body heat.
Any kind of energy gradient can potentially be used as a power source, and typically your body provides its own energy gradient by being warmer than the ambient air. Thermoelectric materials can leverage this, turning the temperature difference directly into useful amounts of electricity.
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Researchers at North Carolina State University’s Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors (ASSIST) have been developing flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) power-harvesting wearables, like the sensor.The small, flexible sticker can produce between 40 and 50 microwatts of electricity per square centimeter as long as it's stuck to your skin. This is due to the array of flexible TEGs wired in series. The amount of power is based on the temperature difference between your skin and the air; the 40-50 microwatt per cm2 output range comes from a difference of just 3 degrees Celsius—with no heatsink or airflow across the generator. If you add airflow into the mix (say, if you're walking or jogging), the generator is much more efficient, producing around three times as much power.
Such a wearable patch is never going to produce enough energy to run a display or power a smart phone or anything like that, however it is capable of running a low power processor along with sensors such as accelerometers, an EKG monitor, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, or hydration monitors.
The researchers are developing an ultra low-power Bluetooth standard for data communication, allowing the patch to talk to your phone. This kind of feature is what differentiates ASSIST's wearable sensors from some of the other wearable sensors we saw at CES. Because the sensor has all the power it needs, it can provide data without you having to interact with it at all.
The developers aim to create small self-powered wearable sensors that can last for up to a year. They are also looking for an industry partner to license the tech for mass production.
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