Energy Harvesting for wearable IoT using flexible photo-voltaic cells

What is it about?

Wearable devices interweave technology into daily life in a myriad of applications including health monitoring, smart watch, and fitness tracker. Widespread adoption of these devices is hindered by the duration they can operate without recharging. Since the weight, size and flexibility constraints limit the total battery capacity, it is imperative to leverage ambient energy sources, such as solar energy, body heat and motion. This paper demonstrates how to maximize the harvested energy using flexible photo-voltaic cells.

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Why is it important?

Advances in low power sensor, processor and wireless communication technologies enable a wide range of wearable applications. For instance, small form factor and low cost IoT devices offer a great potential for non-invasive healthcare services which are not limited to any specific time or place. However, small form factor and low cost constraints severely limit the battery capacity. Therefore, there is a critical need for leveraging ambient energy and allocating it optimally to enable wearable IoT devices.

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