• March 16, 2023

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Researchers are hard at work discovering the future of wireless through 6G telecommunications. One of the most promising breakthroughs is the possibility of Visible Light Communication (VLC). A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has announced they have created an innovative way to harvest waste energy from VLC by using the human body as an antenna to power an array of wearable devices and possibly even larger electronics.

VLC is a wireless version of fiber optics that uses flashes of light to transmit information. “Instead of using radio signals to send information wirelessly, it uses the light from LEDs that can turn on and off, up to one million times per second,” explained Jie Xiong, professor of information and computer sciences at UMass Amherst.

Previously, Xiong and Minhao Cui, a graduate student at UMass Amherst, demonstrated there is significant leaked energy in VLC systems, because the LEDs send out radio waves, and this leaked RF energy could be put to good use. After some experimentation to design an antenna that could maximize the collection of leaked RF energy, Xiong and Cui discovered the human body is best source for amplifying this ability.

From this, they designed a device called “Bracelet+,” which is a simple copper-wire coil that can be worn as a typical piece of the jewelry on the upper forearm. The bracelet design offers the perfect balance of power harvesting and wearability.

“The design is cheap—less than fifty cents,” explained Xiong and Cui. “Bracelet+ can reach up to micro-watts, enough to support many sensors such as on-body health monitoring sensors that require little power to work owing to their low sampling frequency and long sleep-mode duration.”

Sources:

designnews.com/electronics/next-gen-wireless-tech-could-harvest-energy-human-body

umass.edu/news/article/next-generation-wireless-technology-may-leverage-human-body-energy