22 June 2017
Radio powered by your own sweat hints at future of wearables
By Timothy Revell
Battery flat on your radio? Don’t sweat it. Or maybe that’s exactly what you should do. Sweat alone has been used to power a radio for two days, demonstrating the capability of a new skin patch.
The patch is a flexible square just a couple of centimetres across that sticks to skin. It contains enzymes that replace the precious metals normally used in batteries and feed off sweat to provide power. Getting enough power out of a biofuel cell to make it useful has proved tricky, but the latest version can extract 10 times more than before.
“We’re now getting really impressive power levels. If you were out for a run, you would be able to power a mobile device,” says Joseph Wang at the University of California, San Diego, who was in the team that worked on the technology.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138282-radio-powered-by-your-own-sweat-hints-at-future-of-wearables/
