Display screens integrated into contact lenses (image above)?
Micromechanical medical devices? Pervasive biosensors? A big challenge
in the development of wearable and implantable gadgets is how to power
them. Years ago, I wrote about efforts to develop a "glucose fuel cell"
and other possible technologies to scavenge power from the human body
itself. In the new issue of Smithsonian, Michael Belifore looks at the
latest developments in that field, much of which is funded by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Starved Electronics
program. Belifore is the author of The
Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the
Internet to Artificial Limbs. From Smithsonian:
Obviously, our bodies generate heat—thermal energy. They also produce vibrations when we move—kinetic energy. Both forms of energy can be converted into electricity. Anantha Chandrakasan, an MIT electrical engineering professor, who is working on the problem with a former student named Yogesh Ramadass, says the challenge is to harvest adequate amounts of power from the body and then efficiently direct it to the device that needs it.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Body as battery - Boing Boing
Author: David Pescovitz
