Engadget talks flexible batteries for wearables

Mat Smith of the Engadget crew recently went hands-on with ProLogium, a manufacturer of flexible batteries for wearable devices.

“[The] flexible-battery manufacturer reckons its thin, flexible lithium-ceramic cells, shaped into wristbands, could offer as much as 500mAh of extra power, with existing models already offering an extra 300mAh,” Smith wrote on the sidelines of Computex 2014 in Taiwan.

“The lithium-ceramic batteries used are solid-state, meaning they avoid the volatility of other lithium-powered power sources. Other safety boons include non-flammable materials and the fact that it won’t explode or set fire if cut into pieces.”

According to Smith, the three- to five-cell layers measure (roughly) 1.5mm thick, making them a perfect fit for a wide range of wearables, including smart glass headsets, illuminated clothing, heating elements and smartwatches.

As Smith reports, the company is already making the bands in various configurations, offering a two-piece that connects to the end of a watch face, along with a chin design that connects and overlaps an existing strap.

LEWE is an open source biometric wristband

LEWE – an open source biometric wristband – is built around the Atmel-powered Arduino Mega board (ATmega1280) and a number of shields, including Bluetooth, RTC and color LCD.

According to Boris Landoni of OpenElectronics, the goal of Project LEWE is to leverage available tech and create a low cost platform using sensors for data collection.

“Clearly this version is quite hulking, but we wanted to explain how to make the [platform],” said Landoni.

“[Ultimately, everything can be] integrated into a single board or two, in a more compact fashion that can be worn thanks to a special container with a wristband.”

The current iteration of the LEWE prototype currently supports at least five functions, including:

• Measuring body temperature and sweat rate
• Local display of recorded data
• Relaying information to a smartphone app
• Sending and storing data to the cloud
• Organizing data in graph form for analysis

On the app side, LEWE is designed to communicates with an Android smartphone.

“The app consists of a main activity, in which the last data received from the wristband are shown, [along with] a secondary activity that displays the diagram containing all the data,” Landoni added.

“By clicking the icon of the gear, you can enter the app settings [to] connect and configure the cloud access information.”

Interested in learning more about LEWE? You can check out additional information on OpenElectronics here.