The biggest hurdle that small wearables face is the size of the battery that can keep them functional without making them bulky. Now, researchers at UC San Diego have developed a new wearable device that can charge small devices and sensors.
The thin and flexible strip can be placed on a fingertip and generates small amounts of electricity when the user’s finger sweats or presses on it. The bright side of the new device is that it can generate power even when the user is asleep or in a still position.
Generating power from sweat
Researchers believe this new tech has the potential to power future wearables because they can harness energy from human sweat even when they are not moving. Researcher Lu Yin says that, unlike other sweat-powered wearables, the new tech doesn’t need the user to exercise and requires no physical input from them.
The device is capable of generating power from light finger presses. Such activity could involve typing, texting, tapping, or playing the piano. Developers also believe that the device could come in handy for daily activities involving touch, allowing normal things to charge wearable devices. Most power generates from the sweat produced by the fingertips.
Easy to use power solution
Fingertips generate the most sweat on the entire body, with each having over a thousand sweat glands producing between 100 and 1,000 times more sweat than other sweat points on the body. The reason other parts feel more sweaty is the lack of ventilation. Fingertips are always exposed to air, allowing the sweat to evaporate.
The flexible strip is wrapped around a fingertip like a band-aid. It packs a pad of carbon foam electrodes that absorb sweat and convert it into electrical energy. The electrodes pack enzymes that start chemical reactions between lactate and oxygen molecules in sweat to produce power.
Under the electrodes lies a chip that is built using a piezoelectric material generating additional electricity when applied pressure on. The device will be able to collect almost 400 millijoules of energy. This amount of energy is enough to keep an electric watch running for a whole day.
