Energy harvesting for self-powered wearable devices

Abstract

Personalized sensor networks optionally should include wearable sensors or a body area network (BAN) wirelessly connected to a home computer or a remote computer through long-distance devices, such as a personal digital assistant or a mobile phone. While long-distance data transmission can typically be performed only by using the batteries as a power supply, the sensors with a short-distance wireless link can be powered autonomously. The idea of a self-powered device is not new and is actually known for centuries. The earliest example of self-powered wearable device is the self-winding watch invented in about 1770. However, typically not much energy is harvested in a small device, so that use of a battery, primary or rechargeable, is beneficial from practical point of view. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.