A Thermoelectric Bracelet To Maintain a Comfortable Body Temperature 125
rtoz writes "Heating or cooling certain parts of your body — such as applying a warm towel to your forehead if you feel chilly — can help maintain your perceived thermal comfort. Using that concept, four MIT engineering students developed a thermoelectric bracelet that monitors air and skin temperature, and sends tailored pulses of hot or cold waveforms to the wrist to help maintain thermal comfort. The product is now a working prototype. And although people would use the device for personal comfort, the team says the ultimate aim is to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, by cooling and heating the individual — not the building. The team estimates that if the device stops one building from adjusting its temperature by even just 1 degree Celsius, it will save roughly 100 kilowatt-hours per month."
Sold! (Score:5, Insightful)
Give one to me to keep cool, one to my girlfriend to keep warm, and we'll set the AC in the middle.
Free alternative (Score:4, Insightful)
But hey, sure, let's instead try playing games with peoples' heads rather than address the real problem. And then the PHBs can ask themselves why the electric bill has actually gone up, when everyone starts keeping an electric space heater under their desk.
Re:Waveforms? (Score:5, Insightful)
Once your follow the link from the self promoting blog to the actual article from MIT [mit.edu] you find this
Over the course of developing its technology, the Wristify team made a key discovery: Human skin is very sensitive to minute, rapid changes in temperature, which affect the whole body. They found they needed to heat or cool any body part (in their case, the wrist) at a rate of at least 0.1 C per second in order to make the entire body, overall, feel several degrees warmer or colder.
After 15 prototypes, the team landed on its final product, which resembles a wristwatch and can be powered, for up to eight hours, by a lithium polymer battery. This prototype demonstrated a rate of change of up to 0.4 C per second.
The “watch” part of the prototype actually consists of the team’s custom copper-alloy-based heat sink (a component that lowers a device’s temperature by dissipating heat). Attached is an automated control system that manages the intensity and duration of the thermal pulses delivered to the heat sink. Integrated thermometers also measure external and body temperature to adjust accordingly.
Its clear from the article that there is no actual heating of the body involved. Their system does not have enough power to heat 150 pounds of (essentially) water even one degree in the time period mentioned, let alone maintain any elevated temperature over 8 hours.
They are simply tricking the body into thinking it is warm enough or cool enough so that you don't FEEL cold / hot. You still actually ARE too cold or too hot.
This sounds interesting but I wonder just how safe it is to trick the body's thermal regulation its cool enough such that it no longer pays attention to the fact that it might be running dangerously close to heat induced stroke? Or trick it into thinking its cold, so it ramps up the metabolism.
In fact this might be a more useful as w weight loss device than an energy saving device.
But I'm still not convinced we should let engineers start micromanaging bodily functions, when all they are worried about is the device and the energy consumption.
Technology to do the same thing was invented a LONG time ago. Its called a sweater.
Even cheaper is a simple cap. Put it on, and you reduce heat loss through your head sufficiently enough to actually warm your entire body. Take it off and the reverse happens. The cap will last for years with no need for environment polluting batteries, and never has to be plugged in or recharged.
It's more of a technique than technology. (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology to do the same thing was invented a LONG time ago. Its called a sweater.
It's keeping one foot out from under the covers.