New York: A new way of
powering gadgets using simply a person's own body heat has been
developed by an American company that specialises in green power
sources.
This week at a technology show in New York City, Perpetua was
showing a new way of powering gadgets, Fox New reported Saturday.
It's not, strictly speaking, a new way. The technology is based on
a principle discovered nearly 200 years ago by physicist Thomas
Johann Seebeck. Seebeck found that a combination of materials,
when warmer on one side and colder on another, produces
electricity.
Current heat wave notwithstanding, the human body's temperature of
around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is usually hotter than the air
around it.
So Perpetua has developed an armband, soon to become a wristband,
that produces enough power for small electronics - not smartphones,
but items such as Bluetooth devices.
Headsets using a technology called Bluetooth Low Energy need only
about 2 volts, said Jerry Wiant, vice president of marketing at
Perpetua.
What else uses that level of power? A traditional watch does, he
said, as do medical and fitness devices such as heart monitors.
Perpetua's first products are for the US government. The
Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology division,
for example, is funding a power-conducting jacket to monitor the
health and safety of first responders - with sensors for heart
rate, breathing rate and levels of pollutants such as carbon
monoxide.
But Perpetua is also aiming for consumer products - for example, a
watch with a wrist strap that also doubles as a wirelss power
source, the broadcaster said.
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