Wearables tagged posts

Machines and electronic devices often generate waste heat that is difficult to utilize. If electricity could be generated from this waste heat, it would offer a means for a clean and sustainable power production: Such a technology would be ideally suited for low-power electronics applications such as wearables or low-cost Internet-of-Things devices. This includes, for example, wearable (medical) devices and sensors, with a wide range of applications in the healthcare and sports industry, in smart buildings and mobility applications.

Thermoelectric generators, machines that generate electricity by exploiting temperature di...

1. An array of the temperature sensor chips is shown. 2, Near-zero-power temperature sensor runs on 113 picowatts of power. Photos by David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Electrical engineers at the UCSD have developed a temperature sensor that runs on only 113 picowatts of power – 628 times lower power than the state of the art and about 10 billion times smaller than a watt. This near-zero-power temperature sensor could extend the battery life of wearable or implantable devices that monitor body temperature, smart home monitoring systems, Internet of Things devices and environmental monitoring systems.

The technology could also enable a new class of devices that can be powered by harvesting energy from low-power sources, such as the body or the surrounding environment...