A team led by scientists from Peking University has developed a rubber-like material that converts body heat into electricity. This advance could allow the next generation of wearable electronics to generate their own power continuously without the need for bulky batteries or constant recharging.
“Our thermoelectric elastomers combine skin-like elasticity with high energy conversion efficiency, paving the way for next-generation self-powered wearables,” the team said.
Most people are well aware of the effects of chronic stress in the modern world. While some stress can be a good thing, like the type of stress your body feels during an intense workout, prolonged or chronic stress can lead to a myriad of health problems, including anxiety, heart disease, and inflammation. And, at a larger scale, the high prevalence of chronic stress in the population increases the burden on public health systems.
Tracking stress responses could help people better understand and manage stress, but stress can be difficult to measure and monitor in an objective and precise manner. Stress hormones fluctuate throughout the day, but current stress assessment methods rely on subjective self-reports, heart rate, or wearable sensors that only measure cortisol in a non-continuous manner. It is difficult to get a full picture of a person’s stress response and its long-term effects with these current methods.
However, scientists have recently developed a device called the “Stressomic,” a wearable biosensor that can continuously monitor cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in sweat—which might just pave the way for better stress management. The device was recently tested in a study published in Science Advances. They claim that it’s capable of distinguishing between acute and chronic stress and can be worn as a simple biocompatible patch placed on the skin.
Spatial computing, an emerging 3D-centric computing model, merges AI, computer vision and sensor technologies to create fluid interfaces between the physical and digital. Unlike traditional models, which require people to adapt to screens, spatial computing allows machines to understand human environments and intent through spatial awareness.
Recent trademark filings and product launches show AI companies targeting the physical world with wearables and robots driven by complex spatial computing.
Bioelectronics have transformed our capacity to monitor and treat diseases; however, a lack of micrometer-scale, energy efficient communication options limit these devices from forming integrated networks that enable full-body, sensor driven, physiological control. Inspired by our nervous system’s ability to transmit information via ionic conduction, we engineered a Smart Wireless Artificial Nervous System (SWANS) that utilizes the body’s own tissue to transmit signals between wearables and implantables. When SWANS emits signals, it generates voltage gradients throughout the body that selectively turn on implanted transistor switches when exceeding their gate threshold voltages. SWANS’ implantable communication components maintain syringe-injectable footprints and 15x greater power efficiencies than Bluetooth and Near Field Communication. In vivo studies in rats demonstrate SWANS’ ability to wirelessly regulate dual hind leg motor control by connecting electronic-skin sensors to implantable neural interfaces via ionic signaling as well as coordinate bioelectronics throughout the epidermal, subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, and gastrointestinal spaces.
Ramy ghanim, yoon jae lee, garan byun, joy jackson, julia Z ding, elaine feller, eugene kim, dilay aygun, anika kaushik, alaz cig, jihoon park, sean healy, camille E cunin, aristide gumyusenge, woon hong yeo, alex abramson.
Harvard researchers developed liquid crystal elastomers that can switch between multiple shapes — chevrons, flat layers, and coils — in response to heat.
By aligning molecules in different directions, the material can be programmed to morph into domes, saddles, or fin-like motions inspired by stingrays and jellyfish.
The shape-shifting material could advance applications in soft robotics, biomedical devices, and smart textiles.
Liquid crystal elastomers are a class of soft materials that can change shape in response to stimuli such as light or heat — making them promising for applications in soft robotics, wearable and biomedical devices, smart textiles and more. But designing compositionally uniform elastomers that can change into different shapes in response to just one stimulus has been challenging and has limited the application of these potentially powerful materials.
Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a way to program liquid crystal elastomers with the ability to deform in opposite directions just by heating — opening up a range of applications.
The research was published in Science.
(May be a repost from 2024)
Having lived with an ALS diagnosis since 2018, Kate Nycz can tell you firsthand what it’s like to slowly lose motor function for basic tasks. “My arm can get to maybe 90 degrees, but then it fatigues and falls,” the 39-year-old said. “To eat or do a repetitive motion with my right hand, which was my dominant hand, is difficult. I’ve mainly become left-handed.”
People like Nycz who live with a neurodegenerative disease like ALS or who have had a stroke often suffer from impaired movement of the shoulder, arm or hands, preventing them from daily tasks like tooth-brushing, hair-combing or eating.
For the last several years, Harvard bioengineers have been developing a soft, wearable robot that not only provides movement assistance for such individuals but could even augment therapies to help them regain mobility.
But no two people move exactly the same way. Physical motions are highly individualized, especially for the mobility-impaired, making it difficult to design a device that works for many different people.
It turns out advances in machine learning can create a more personal touch. Researchers in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), together with physician-scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, have upgraded their wearable robot to be responsive to an individual user’s exact movements, endowing the device with more personalized assistance that could give users better, more controlled support for daily tasks.
Silicon semiconductors used in existing photodetectors have low light responsivity, and the two-dimensional semiconductor MoS₂ (molybdenum disulfide) is so thin that doping processes to control its electrical properties are difficult, limiting the realization of high-performance photodetectors.
A KAIST research team has overcome this technical limitation and developed the world’s highest-performing self-powered photodetector, which operates without electricity in environments with a light source. This paves the way for precise sensing without batteries in wearable devices, biosignal monitoring, IoT devices, autonomous vehicles, and robots, as long as a light source is present.
Professor Kayoung Lee’s research team from the School of Electrical Engineering developed the self-powered photodetector, which demonstrated a sensitivity up to 20 times higher than existing products, marking the highest performance level among comparable technologies reported to date. The work is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Scientists at La Trobe University have produced a new, powerful electricity-conducting material in research which could revolutionize smartphones and wearable technologies like medical devices.
The new technique uses hyaluronic acid, well known due to its popularity in skincare, applied directly to a gold-plated surface to create a thinner, more durable film, or polymer, used to conduct electricity in devices like biosensors.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Wren Greene said the technique could lead to major improvements in the function, cost and usability of devices like touchscreens and wearable biosensors.
From smartphones and smartwatches to medical biosensors, the demand for thinner, lighter, and more powerful electronic components continues to grow. Now, scientists at La Trobe University have developed a groundbreaking invisible polymer film that conducts electricity as effectively as metals, yet is flexible, durable, and scalable for mass production. This innovation could transform not only consumer electronics but also advanced health monitoring devices and wearable technology.
The Breakthrough: Tethered Dopant Templating
For decades, conductive polymers — synthetic materials capable of carrying an electrical current — have been hailed as a promising alternative to metals in electronics. However, they have struggled to achieve the necessary combination of thinness, transparency, conductivity, and durability required for high-performance devices.