MaKayla Simmonds
You Fancy Battery Charger You!
March 6, 2017
Who knew you could be so awesome right? New technologies are turning us into walking outlets! We should all be excited about this! It seems only a few years ago that 'portable' technology was a thing of the future. Well we have achieved that, with all the fancy gadgets and gizmos available now; smartphones, gaming switches, tablets, etc. they almost seem like a thing of the past. Now just think about it, our portable technology even has its own convenient devices that can do all the work. Lets call these things "Wearables", you know, the fancy Apple Watches and Fitbits that almost everyone is wearing now days. But sadly these wearables only have X number of hours before they have to be hung up and plugged into a wall somewhere to restore its battery levels; or if you have a nifty power bank, just plug it in right? All though, in my opinion it would look a little strange to have your watch wired to your pocket... And I'm sure that's one of the reasons someone decided to turn themselves into a walking battery. I mean, the body is an intricate network composed of dozens of things that could 'power something' right? Like ATP?
Well a few years back, 2015 to be exact when the short article I searched for was created, I found mention of what I was looking for, self powering and wearables. You see, I scrolled through Facebook one night (just like you) and there was an ad for a new start-up smartwatch, but this isn't your standard watch. It was different and from what I know its first of its kind so far. The Matrix PowerWatch is a "Smartwatch Powered by You" The start-up's description states: "The MATRIX PowerWatch is the world’s first smartwatch that you never have to charge. Powered by your body heat, it measures calories burned, activity level, and sleep using our advanced thermoelectric technology. It is the only smartwatch to feature a power meter which displays how much electrical power you are generating." Sounds fancy right? That's what I thought. Well now that you have an idea of what I was searching for to understand where this came from, and referring to what I had said before. I found this simple article that discussed where the future of some wearables was going; in this article it talks about simple wearable 'sensors' that are particular to environmental triggers for things like asthma and other conditions. It also briefly talked about these devices containing no batteries and charging with the body. This was my main focus in search, and I didn't want to spend $45 to read different articles that might or might not have been what I was looking for.
Anyways, charging with a human body doesn't seem as simple as plugging your power block into the wall, the device or sensor would need a good contact area to read body heat, as that is what would power the watch. Current smartwatches already have heart-rate monitors and activity sensors already in them, this new watch could be taken further to assist with medical conditions. My beef with these watches, they're massive! I have tiny arms and wrists, could I get an effective reading with this awkward contact that would be made? Technology keeps getting smaller though, so hopefully the same will happen with this new watch. The PowerWatch (like mentioned) is using "thermoelectric technology" which apparently is not a new thing, it was around in the 1800's. Still not completely understanding what this specific technology was though, I Googled it. Not to my surprise there's actually a website dedicated to it and its history, but as for a simple definition though, it's essentially the production of electricity by different temperatures. It seems very logical to use the theremoelectric technology combined with the smartwatch trend currently happening right now. It's in high demand, and batteries are a con in the list of pros. With this idea solving that problem, this technology will be making strides for new ways this can be implemented, additional sensors or not, this is pretty big.
The fact that this 'start-up' watch is just now becoming a thing after all this time we have had thermoelectric technology just amazes me, and I again think it will revolutionize the way that technology and devices are created in the future. We might still have batteries to charge, but the way in which we do so will be so much cooler! So congratulations on being a fancy battery charger.
https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/wearablenano.jsp
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smartwatch-powered-by-you-matrix-powerwatch-watch-fitness#/
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ReplyDeleteHonestly I am very impressed by this new technology. Last October my little sister left a portable phone charger plugged in overnight and it caught on fire, exploded, and nearly burned out house to the ground! Luckily everyone was kay, but since that experience I have been so cautious and nervous about leaving things plugged in, much less simply charging my phone! So the fact that a watch can not only track calories lost or heart rate, but can now use that to charge a device amazes me! I would feel much better about my own body charging a watch than a wall charger, but maybe thats just me being paranoid. Obviously the watch wouldn't contain a lithium ion battery, which is what has been causing certain devices such as phones and portable juice packs to catch on fire.
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