As the attention turns towards wearable devices like Google Glass and smartwatches, how to ensure power supply in a stable and reliable manner is one of the most critical issues facing the developers. What about a light, tiny generator that can produce electricity from the heat emanating from the human body?
Possible. A team of researchers have proposed a solution to this problem by developing a glass fabric-based thermoelectric (TE) generator that is extremely light and flexible and produces electricity from the heat of the human body. In fact, it is so flexible that the allowable bending radius of the generator is as low as 20mm.
"There are no changes in performance even if the generator bends upward and downward for up to 120 cycles," claimed Byung Jin Cho, a professor of electrical engineering at KAIST (formerly also known as Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in South Korea.
The team came up with a new concept and design technique to build a flexible TE generator that minimises thermal energy loss but maximises power output.