Electrostatic power harvesting for material computing

Authors:
E. Rehmi Post;Kit Waal
Affiliations:
Asteism, Inc, Cambridge, USA 02139 and MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, USA 02139;Asteism, Inc, Cambridge, USA 02139
Venue:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Year:
2011

Citing 4
Cited 0

E-broidery: design and fabrication of textile-based computing

IBM Systems Journal
Energy Scavenging for Mobile and Wireless Electronics

IEEE Pervasive Computing
Fabric PCBs, electronic sequins, and socket buttons: techniques for e-textile craft

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Engineering Electromagnetics

Engineering Electromagnetics

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

We describe a novel wearable energy-harvesting system based on the phenomenon of contact electrification: when two materials are brought into contact and then separated, they are often found to be charged. By patterning circuits out of textiles with specific electronic properties, we can collect and channel these transferred charges to power-harvesting circuitry. As a demonstration of this principle, we have designed and built a garment to display the wearer's ongoing level of physical activity by powering strings of LEDs using only the energy generated in the garment's motion. Finally, the methods we describe are not limited to textiles but are applicable to material computing in general.