Artificial hearts are finally reaching a point when patients can actually go home and be ambulatory post implantation. A major problem is keeping these energy hungry devices fed by a power source that’s always accessible. At Rice University teams of students have been working with Cameron International, an engineering firm that partnered with the Texas Heart Institute to develop artificial heart technology, to create a device that harnesses electricity from everyday walking.
An earlier student team came up with a wearable shoe that generates about 400 milliwatts of electricity, certainly not enough to energize a powerful motor. The new iteration of the project has led to a leg brace that produces 4 watts, though still rather insufficient, but an impressive order of magnitude improvement.
The device is used to charge a lithium-ion battery and has gone through basic initial testing to see whether it can be worn for long periods of time. The team is already looking forward to integrating wireless power transmission into the system to be able to power implanted medical devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators.
Here’s a report from Rice University on the project:
Source: Rice University…