A new and low-cost device designed for the transformation of human body into a biological battery has been developed by the researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. The device is stretched enough and can be worn like a ring, a bracelet or like something that touches the skin. “In the future, we want to be able to power the wearable devices without having to include a battery,” said Jianliang Xiao, an associate professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder. The energy generated by the new device would be around 1 volt for every square centimetre of skin space and less voltage generated by it would be enough to power the electronic devices like watches and fitness trackers. The device has a tendency to heal itself when damaged and can be fully recycled after use.
“Whenever you use a battery, you’re depleting that battery and will, eventually, need to replace it,” Xiao said. The new thermoelectric device will provide a constant power. With the ambition of transforming the human body into robot, the new device is not just the first experiments to meld the human into robot previously Xiao’s and his team had an experiment with device called electronic skin a wearable device that looks and behaves like real human skin. A starchy material called polyimine used by the Xiao’s group serve as base for the new experiment with a series of thin thermoelectric chips incorporated inside it.
The new product looks like as techy diamond ring and has a tendency to capture the flow of energy rather than letting it go to waste during the exercise. In addition, the new device is as resilient as biological tissue such as Xiao’s previous device “electronic skin” used to be. “The thermoelectric generators are in close contact with the human body and they can use the heat that would normally be dissipated into the environment,” he said. In line with this he also said, “We’re trying to make our devices as cheap and reliable as possible, while also having as close to zero impact on the environment as possible.”
