No one wants to charge their smartwatch every day, but the current state of battery technology means we're forced to use the charger. A European Union-funded project called Smart2Go has announced that it's working on a solution it calls an "autonomous power platform" that, if successful, could usher in a new generation of wearables that don't need to be charged.
Smart2Go is part of Horizon 2020, a huge EU research and innovation program with 80 billion euros at its disposal and is managed by Fraunhofer FEP (a German company). Other partners include energy storage experts and several research institutes and universities. Fraunhofer FEP will present the project at the Wearable Europe Show in April, where it will talk in more detail about its goals. For now, we don't know much about its plans, but what has been revealed is impressive.
Smart2Go wants to develop a power system that doesn’t need charging at all. It will do this by using “a combination of a powerful battery with appropriate energy harvesting technologies,” according to the initial press release for the project. However, rather than developing just one system, Smart2Go will be a flexible, modular platform for manufacturers so that it can be precisely adapted to different products. The modular components will allow for a choice of energy harvesting type.
Fraunhofer FEP predicts that the platform could be used in everything from smartwatches, fitness trackers and personal safety trackers to exciting future technologies including skin patches and smart tags. But what does energy harvesting mean? This will be the focus of not only the presentation, but also the research itself. The assumptions are that the company will try to harness energy from sources such as heat or motion to provide a stable power source for a device. However, not all energy sources will be applicable to all products.
However, we shouldn't get too excited yet about the idea that we will never need to recharge our smartwatch, as this is a research project and we are not sure that we will be able to use this technology soon.
