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Article: Smartwatches powered by wearers: CUHK researchers aim to harvest energy from human movements

Impact Score

5 / 10

AI Summary (Processed Content)

Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have developed a compact generator that can be embedded in smartwatches to harvest energy from human movement, such as arm swings.

This technology aims to allow users to power their devices simply through daily motion, thereby eliminating the need to remove the watch for charging and preventing gaps in continuous health data tracking.

The main topics covered are the development of the energy-harvesting generator, its potential to enable perpetual wearable device power, and the problem of data interruption during conventional charging.

Original URL

https://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/3108264/smartwatches-powered-wearers-cuhk-researchers-aim-harvest?utm_source=rss_feed

Source Feed

Science & Research - South China Morning Post

Published Date

2020-11-04 00:15

Fetched Date

2026-03-04 14:31

Processed Date

2026-03-04 15:14

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Present

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Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Smartwatches powered by wearers: CUHK researchers aim to harvest energy from human movements
- CUHK researchers create compact generator small enough to be embedded in smartwatches, which can harvest energy from movement
- Users can power their own devices just by moving around, eliminating the need to ever remove smartwatches to charge them
In a laboratory in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), researchers study a swinging metal pole designed to mimic the movement of human arms.
Using a highly compact generator containing fewer than 10 components – including a motion capture unit and power generation unit – the researchers aim to harvest the energy created by human motion to power smartwatches and wristbands.
There is one problem – due to limited battery life, this image will always have gaps representing the stretches of time when you are charging your device.
“Some data such as heart rate tracking should be 24-hours non-stop, but when you charge the smartwatch, you need to take it off,” said CUHK researcher Cai Mingjing. “[My smartwatch] needs to be charged once a week, which means a gap of several hours,” the 30-year-old PhD holder said.