A new lightweight thermoelectric generator has been created by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) that uses the wearer's body heat to generate electricity.
The device has the ability to extend the battery life of smartphones and low-power wearable devices, according to Gizmag.
With piezoelectric generators and solar-powered mobile phones having been studied in the past for their ability to generate more power for electronic devices, KAIST believes using waste heat the body naturally gives off is the best way to power wearable technology.
The ultra-thin thermoelectric generator absorbs energy from the skin, Discovery News reported. The device is made of flexible and transparent material, which makes it a good match for elastic fitness watches and all-purpose smartwatches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear.
KAIST researchers said the device has 10 times the energy output of devices that are built in similar ways. The said the device can also be used in airplanes and vehicles, generating more additional power from wasted thermal energy.
The generator has a great advantage in not needing additional thick, external layers for support, Gizmag reported. Additional layers have made these kinds of generators heavy and inefficient in the past. For the new device, glass fabric surrounds the thermoelectric materials, which maintains thickness, efficiency and flexibility.
Details on the device are in a paper that has been published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.
The thermoelectric generator is still under development, and it will be a long time before it is made available to consumers, Wearable World News reported. The research team believes that the use of the generator will extend to other uses, leading to the possibility of a line of products that do not need batteries or external energy sources to work.
"Our technology presents an easy and simple way of fabricating an extremely flexible, light, and high-performance TE generator," said Professor Byung Jin Cho, head of the project. "We expect that this technology will find further applications in scale-up systems such as automobiles, factories, aircrafts, and vessels where we see abundant thermal energy being wasted."
