Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting for Wearable Computers
Thomas Broadfoot, Roozbeh Jafari

Citation
Thomas Broadfoot, Roozbeh Jafari. "Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting for Wearable Computers". Talk or presentation, 5, November, 2013; Poster presented at the 2013 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting.

Abstract
Design challenges for Wearable Computers such as operating lifetime, form factor, and affordability need to be addressed for widespread adoption of these devices. Node lifetime is a critical issue that can be improved with energy harvesting and novel energy-aware architectures. Thermoelectric generators(TEGs) that harvest from thermal gradients around the human body are a good option for wearable computers. By tracking the energy profiles of TEG harvesters while worn by a person throughout the day, we can gain valuable insight into the design of energy-aware architectures. An energy harvesting wearable computer was designed and built using commercial-off-the-shelf components for the purpose of measuring voltage and current from the harvester, battery, and the load. The main focus is to look for correlations among the activity level of the person, their environment, and how much energy is harvested. Our first study shows that ambient temperature and airflow have a significant effect on the amount of harvested energy.

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Citation formats

• HTML

  Thomas Broadfoot, Roozbeh Jafari. <a
  href="http://www.terraswarm.org/pubs/165.html"><i>Thermoelectric
  Energy Harvesting for Wearable
  Computers</i></a>, Talk or presentation,  5,
  November, 2013; Poster presented at the <a
  href="http://www.terraswarm.org/conferences/13/annual"
  >2013 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>.

• Plain text

  Thomas Broadfoot, Roozbeh Jafari. "Thermoelectric
  Energy Harvesting for Wearable Computers". Talk or
  presentation,  5, November, 2013; Poster presented at the
  <a
  href="http://www.terraswarm.org/conferences/13/annual"
  >2013 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>.

• BibTeX

  @presentation{BroadfootJafari13_ThermoelectricEnergyHarvestingForWearableComputers,
      author = {Thomas Broadfoot and Roozbeh Jafari},
      title = {Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting for Wearable
                Computers},
      day = {5},
      month = {November},
      year = {2013},
      note = {Poster presented at the <a
                href="http://www.terraswarm.org/conferences/13/annual"
                >2013 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>.},
      abstract = {Design challenges for Wearable Computers such as
                operating lifetime, form factor, and affordability
                need to be addressed for widespread adoption of
                these devices. Node lifetime is a critical issue
                that can be improved with energy harvesting and
                novel energy-aware architectures. Thermoelectric
                generators(TEGs) that harvest from thermal
                gradients around the human body are a good option
                for wearable computers. By tracking the energy
                profiles of TEG harvesters while worn by a person
                throughout the day, we can gain valuable insight
                into the design of energy-aware architectures. An
                energy harvesting wearable computer was designed
                and built using commercial-off-the-shelf
                components for the purpose of measuring voltage
                and current from the harvester, battery, and the
                load. The main focus is to look for correlations
                among the activity level of the person, their
                environment, and how much energy is harvested. Our
                first study shows that ambient temperature and
                airflow have a significant effect on the amount of
                harvested energy.},
      URL = {http://terraswarm.org/pubs/165.html}
  }
  

Posted by Thomas Broadfoot on 3 Nov 2013.
Groups: tools