TEG Data Collection Platform for Wearable Applications

Abstract

Wearable systems have become popular in recent years, especially in health sensing applications where they enable long-term monitoring of patients. However, the majority of these devices are powered by batteries and regularly need to be recharged, creating not only issues of user compliance but also the potential for missing critical sensing events. Energy harvesting presents a promising solution to extend the lifetime of the batteries or even completely replace them for continuous self-powered operation. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) provide the potential for self-powered wearables by harvesting the heat generated by the human body. However, environmental dynamics and human behavior - specifically airflow around the TEG - affects the harvestable energy, resulting in a highly dynamic energy source that can affect the potential for self-powered operation. In this project, we designed a wearable data collection platform that records environmental and behavioral data with a concentration on airflow around the wrist. This platform collects traces based on real-world environmental and behavioral dynamics, enabling exploration of energy harvesting dynamics and the potential for TEG-powered wearable applications.