Smartwatches could one day be charged by twisting your wrist

As the old saying goes, a twist of the wrist got me three hours of battery life
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The biggest issue with smartwatches is battery life. It's the bane of our existence, but what if it was possible to easily and quickly recharge your smartwatch while you wore it?

A new study from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology seems to indicate that may be possible. It's all thanks to triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), tiny devices that can convert motion into electricity. In the study, researchers were able to confirm the possibility that wearables and smartwatches could be powered by human motion via TENG.

Read this: 12 ways to improve the Apple Watch's battery life

Basically, the amount of motion generated by an arm in a day is enough to power a smartwatch, and in some cases the standby time for a smartphone. In fact, researchers found the amount of energy produced by body movements in a minute was about equal to the energy expended by most wearables.

There are still problems before TENG can power your Apple Watch though, as TENG's energy optimization and stability needs to improve before it's capable of powering wearables on a consistent basis. Not only would TENG provide an excellent potential power source, it's light, cheap, flexible and make of biocompatible materials, which would only mean cheaper and lighter wearables for all. Go science!

Source: APL Materials Via: Digital Journal

Smartwatches could one day be charged by twisting your wrist




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Husain Sumra

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Husain joined Wareable in 2017 as a member of our San Fransisco based team. Husain is a movies expert, and runs his own blog, and contributes to MacRumors.

He has spent hours in the world of virtual reality, getting eyes on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR. 

At Wareable, Husain's role is to investigate, report and write features and news about the wearable industry – from smartwatches and fitness trackers to health devices, virtual reality, augmented reality and more.

He writes buyers guides, how-to content, hardware reviews and more.


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