Image via Wristify
A group of MIT students have developed a thermoelectric bracelet that lets you control your body’s temperature. You’ll save energy with this invention, and you won’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money on heating/air conditioning every year. The wearable solution to changing seasons will observe the temperature patterns of your skin and adjust your temperature accordingly to cool or warm indoor environments. The inventors adhere to their slogan “thermal comfort, reimagined,” while promoting Wristify.
The Wristify bracelet contains thermal stimuli that are strapped to the wrist, helping with thermal identification and dissipation. The bracelet can be easily changed between heating and cooling mode by a switch on the bracelet. The software in the bracelet controls the pulses of how much heat or coolness is released into the body at a rate of 0.4ºC a second. Wearing the bracelet could save the average person 100 kWh a month in energy consumption, leading to a less expensive energy bill.
The wristband is powered by a lithium polymer battery, with a charge of up to 8 hours. A thermoelectric module is included in Wristify, with customizable pulses of your desired temperature to the wrist. Thermometers are integrated into the watchband component, which is constructed from a copper-alloy-based heat sink that manages the body’s thermal pulses.
Image via MIT
Wearing this bracelet in a cold room is the equivalent of sitting next to a heater blasting on its highest setting. Moreover, the bracelet makes the body more receptive to temperature change, essentially warming/cooling your body faster than if you were to turn on a heat/air conditioning system in a room.
During MIT’s Making and Desiging Materials Engineering Competition (MADMEC), the students unleashed their winning gadget, Wristify, and won $10,000 for their invention.
Each year, MADMEC has a theme to base the inventions on MIT’s website stated that the contest’s theme this year was how science “can provide solutions for energy storage, building efficiency, transportation and many other critical needs.”
The energy-conscious team of innovators realized that this bracelet could successfully initiate a system of energy efficiency in the future. In an interview with Mashable, team member Sam Shames proclaimed, “Why heat or cool an entire house or building when you could heat or cool a person directly instead?” Individual temperature regulating would cut down on the United States’ overall energy consumption as a whole.
The team is currently working on making Wristify available to the public.
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