Never run out of batteries again. With this new tech called TEGWear, your body is the battery.
It’s no science-fiction fantasy. With wearable gadgets like Google Glass on the horizon, all that’s missing is an ultraportable power source that never needs recharging–like, say, your own body heat. A startup in Corvallis, Oregon, has developed a small chip that can turn body heat into electric energy, using the same technology found in solar panels. “We absorb the heat from your body, and that heat is funneled through a thermoelectric generator that converts it into electric power,” says Perpetua Power Vice President Jerry Wiant. The result: a single, square-inch TEGwear chip generates enough power (up to 3 watts volts) to run anything from the accelerometer in your pedometer to the wireless headset for your smartphone.