Energy harvesters power wearables

Researchers at North Carolina State University are using nanotechnology to create energy-harvesting and storage devices for ultra-low power sensors. The federally funded research aims to create battery-free and body-powered wearable health monitors.

The Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors Technologies or ASSIST received funding from the National Science Foundation in 2012 for five years of research into health management electronics that use novel power sources.

ASSIST is working with two categories of sensors: non-invasive health sensors for bio-electric, biochemical and acoustic monitoring, and environmental sensors that measure gas, particulate matter and temperature. The goals are to gather more accurate data on how the environment causes changes in physiological signals and develop a multi-modal harvesters.

Tom Snyder, director of Industry Programs at ASSIST, demonstrated an asthma monitor at CES this year, which was both activated and powered by breath. “If we understand exposure to the ozone and monitor EKG and understand motion of the body…an asthma attack could be predicted as much as 24 hours before it happens,” he said, noting that this principle is currently being studied.

These wearable sensors must be small, low power and often transmit data regularly. To that end, ASSIST and its research partners are working on multi-modal energy harvesters combining elements that, for example, tap thermoelectric and kinetic energy. At its annual review next month, ASSIST will demonstrate an EKG monitor armband that wirelessly transmits data to an aggregator over thermoelectric power.

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