Lifeboat Foundation

On account of the improvement the Internet of things (IoTs) and smart devices, our lives have been noticeably facilitated in the past few years. Machines and devices are becoming more ingenious with the help of artificial intelligence and various sensors^1,2. So, integrated circuits are necessary to provide convenient and effectual communication³ Since the first report on TENG by Wang’s group in 2012⁴, triboelectric systems have been recognized as a proper choice to harvest and convert the energy from the environment^5,6. Photodetectors, as one of the most significant types of sensors that can precisely convert incident light into electrical signals have attracted increasing attention in recent years. Various applications including photo-sensors, spectral analysis^7,8, environment monitoring⁹, communication devices¹⁰, imaging¹¹, take advantage of narrow band or broad band photodetectors from ultraviolet to terahertz wavelenght. Literature reviews show that the heterojunction/heterostructure based on 2D/3D materials have been widely used in PD applications. In fact, to attain high performance of PDs based heterojunction, the built-in electrical field is needed to suppress the photogenerated recombination and stimulating collection¹². Although, Si based PDs offer reliably high performance results, their complexity and expensive manufacturing process have limited their expansion and adoptability for industrial purposes^13,14,15. Hence, most available PDs are designed based on external power supplies such as electrochemical batteries for signal production and processing, their design not only increases the sensor’s dimension and weight, but also creates limitations for sensor maintenances¹⁶ which is not proper in the IoTs. In 2014, ZH Lin et al. and Zheng et al. represented an investigation on the self-powered PD based on TENG system^3,17, and since then, self-driven PDs have been extensively investigated^{2,5,9,18,19,20}. These devices can find potential applications in health monitoring systems such as heart checking²¹ and health protection from some detrimental radiation such as high levels of UV radiance²².

But in the other hand, even though TENGs could be promise for using in wearable electronics, they still inevitably have limitations in power generation, sensing range, sensitivity, and also the sensing domain for the intrinsic limitations of electrification^23,24,25. Moreover, due to high voltage, low current, and alternating current output of the TENGs, they cannot be used in order to supply power to electronic devices effectively without using power management circuits (PMCs) based on the LC modules. There are several reports that describe the importance of the impedance matching of the TENG and PMC units for better energy storage efficiency of the pulsed-TENG^26,27. Without using the PMC unit, there are some challenges as a result of synching the TENG, as the power supply, and the consumption element such as the PD device. These challenges include the process of matching the resistance of the device and the impedance of the TENG to achieve effective performance of the self-powered system^6,28.

In this study an efficient battery-free photodetector based on bulk heterojunction SnS₂ nanosheets and perovskite materials has been designed and powered employing three different TENGs (GO paper/ Kapton, FTO/Kapton and hand/ FTO). In the first step for circuit designing to have better performance of the photodetector in coupling with TENG, the effect load resistance amount in the circuit on the impedance matching the TENG and the inner resistance of the photodetector, has been investigated through output current amplitude. The investigation, shows that to achieve the high amount of the photocurrent, the load resistance should be positioned in both critical zone of the out-put voltage of the TENG and the resistance range of high power density production of the TENG. In the second step, for investigation the effect of the dark resistance of the photodetector on out-put current of the self-powered photodetector, a device with very lower initial resistance (All-oxide Cu₂O/ZnO photodetector) has been used with and without different load resistance in the circuit; in this regard, it is concluding that the initial resistance is too important to have proper design impedance matching circuit.

Recent technological advances have enabled the creation of increasingly sophisticated sensors that can track movements and changes in real-world environments with remarkable levels of precision. Many engineers are now working to make these sensors thinner so that they can be embedded in a variety of devices, including robotic limbs and wearable devices.

Researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have recently developed a thin sensor for computer vision applications, which is based on a micro lens array (MLA). MLAs are 1D or 2D arrays comprising several small lenses, which are generally arranged in either squared or hexagonal patterns.

“In this study, we combined an old technology, a micro lens array, with vision-based tactile sensors,” Xia Chen, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “This work builds on the work using the pinhole arrays to capture the image. We wanted to achieve a thin-format vision-based tactile sensor, as few studies so far focused on changing the imaging system of vison-based tactile sensor.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR7tHXV14xk

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In 2010, Apple software engineer Gray Powell left a in a bar in Redwood City, California. In an era where nearly every device leaks before it’s officially announced, images of a new iPhone showing up online seem quaint. But at the time it was a big deal and the incident even came to. Now, more than a decade later, images of another highly anticipated device have made their way online in much the same way.

On Saturday evening, Android Central photos of Google’s long-rumored Pixel Watch. The outlet says it obtained the images you see throughout this post from someone who found the smartwatch at a restaurant in the US. The photos confirm the Pixel Watch will feature a circular face with minimal display bezels. If you look closely, you can see the wearable’s band attaches directly to its case, with a latch mechanism that looks proprietary to Google and reminiscent of the design employed by Fitbit on its Versa and Sense smartwatches (Google the company in 2021).

The watch features a single button next to its crown and what looks like a microphone or altimeter port. On the back of the device, you can see an optical heartrate sensor. Unfortunately, the watch wouldn’t go beyond its boot screen so there are no photos of it running.

Mojo Vision said it has created a new prototype of its Mojo Lens augmented reality contact lenses. This smart contact lens will bring “invisible computing” to life, the company believes.

The Mojo Lens prototype is a critical milestone for the company in its development, testing, and validation process, and is an innovation positioned at the intersection of smartphones, augmented reality/virtual reality, smart wearables, and health tech.

The prototype includes numerous new hardware features and technologies embedded directly into the lens — advancing its display, communications, eye tracking, and power system.

Try to get your head around that — or not. The concept of combining noise-cancelling headphones with a built-in air purifier sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi film taking place in a world with high-tech but poor air quality. However, it’s actually a real device — one that you’ll soon be able to buy.

The Dyson Zone™ is Dyson’s first wearable purifier, capturing city pollution including gas, allergens and particulate matter and cancelling unwanted noise with advanced noise cancellation and pure, high-fidelity audio.

A Korean research team has developed a soft, mechanically deformable, and stretchable lithium battery that can be used in the development of wearable devices, and examined the battery’s feasibility by printing them on clothing surfaces. The research team, led by Dr. Jeong Gon Son from the Soft Hybrid Materials Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST; President: Seok-Jin Yoon), announced that they had developed a lithium battery wherein all of the materials, including the anode, cathode, current collector, electrolytes, and encapsulant, are stretchable and printable. The lithium battery developed by the team possesses high capacity and free-form characteristics suitable for mechanical deformation.

Owing to the rapidly increasing demand for high-performance wearable devices—such as smart bands, implantable electronic devices such as pace-makers, and soft wearable devices for use in the realistic metaverse—the development of a battery that is soft and stretchable like the human skin and organs has been attracting interest.

The hard, inorganic electrode of a conventional battery comprises the majority of the battery’s volume, making it difficult to stretch. Other components, such as the separator and the current collector for drawing and transferring charges, must also be stretchable, and the liquid electrolyte leakage issue must also be resolved.

An elastic light-emitting polymer that glows like a filament in a light bulb could lead to affordable, practical and robust flexible screens.

Flexible screens could form part of wearable computers that stick to our skin and do away with the need to carry a separate smartphone or laptop. But the various existing flexible displays all have flaws: they either require high voltages to run, are too fragile, too expensive, not bendy enough or lack brightness.

When you’re building wearables and glowables, sometimes a flashy rainbow animation is all you need. [Geeky Faye] likes to go a little further, however, and built this impressive necklace that serves to inform on the local air quality.

The necklace consists of a series of Neopixel LED strips, housed within a tidy 3D printed housing made with flexible filament. A dovetail joint makes putting on and removing the necklace a cinch. A TinyPico V2, based on the ESP32, runs the show, as it’s very small and thus perfect for the wearable application. A USB power bank provides power to the microcontroller and LEDs.

Continue reading “Breathe Easy With This LED Air Sensor Necklace” »