You can wear your own phone charger

A DEVICE that lets you charge up your smartphone or other electric device using your body heat has won top prize at the Netexplo Awards at Unesco in Paris.

The Wearable Thermo-Element invented by South Korean Professor Byung Jin Cho is about the same size as a plaster and can be incorporated into clothing to power phones and other mobile devices - or even into a hybrid car to use engine heat to power the battery.

It is a glass-fabric thermoelectric generator that works on converting the energy difference between skin temperature and air temperature into electricity.

Due to go into commercial production next year, it may be built into the back of a watch or smartwatch to keep that device powered – and the same technology could be adapted to power heart monitors or a pacemaker.

Developed at the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology the Wearable Thermo-Element follows in the footsteps of Twitter, video news app Wibbitz, a cheap 3D Printer and smart chopsticks as previous winners of the Netexplo Award, which is a partnership with UNESCO.

Read more about how the Wearable Thermo-Element was created at the KAIST website.
Photo: KAIST