Research Projects

Batteries are the most common and reliable method of charging current wearable sensors and implants that are frequently used in healthcare, sports and various other sectors. Due to plethora of advantages, these technologies are rapidly percolating in day-to-day life of human beings. However, batteries are bulky and rigid which (a) creates hurdle in reducing the size of implants and wearable sensors, (b) restricts flexibility/wearability of wearable sensors, and (c) requires operative procedures in case of implants for battery replacement, and frequent replacement/recharging for wearable sensor. Current research efforts are being made globally to circumvent the abovementioned limitations. In fact, there is no truly wearable technology which can single handedly enable wireless power transfer to both wearables and implants simultaneously allowing seamless plug-and-play mechanism at any point across the human body using a single power source in the most efficient and safe manner. Hence, the objective of this project will be to explore a novel wearable wireless power transfer technology which envisions wireless charging of wearable sensors and implants on the go in real-time thereby removing/minimizing the battery usage both for wearables and implants leading to a seamless and a truly wearable experience. For this, magnetoinductive waveguide will be utilized that PI has recently demonstrated for the first time for wearable application. This structure can be integrated in the garment of daily wear which allows confined flow of magnetic energy along the thin layer of the garment wirelessly with significantly low-loss. This structure will be explored for wireless power transfer capability to meet the above stated objective. If the objective is accomplished, it will lay foundation to build a smart garment based novel technology for wirelessly powering wearable sensors and implants at any point across the human body while overcoming limitations in the current state-of-the-art.