Four engineering students at MIT have developed a thermoelectric bracelet designed to help wearers maintain a comfortable body temperature.
Resembling a wristwatch, the invention, known as Wristify, monitors air and skin temperature and sends pulses of hot or cold waveforms to the wrist when needed to help the wearer maintain thermal comfort. A custom copper-alloy-based heat sink makes up the “watch” part of the prototype, with an attached automated control system that manages the intensity and duration of the thermal pulses. Integrated thermometers also keep track of body and external temperature.
While the device is ideal for managing personal comfort, the team says its ultimate aim is to reduce the energy consumption of buildings by cooling and heating the individual—a much smaller object—than the building itself.
“Buildings right now use an incredible amount of energy just in space heating and cooling. In fact, all together this makes up 16.5 percent of all U.S. primary energy consumption. We wanted to reduce that number, while maintaining individual thermal comfort,” Sam Shames, a materials science and engineering senior who co-invented the Wristify technology, said. “We found the best way to do it was local heating and cooling of parts of the body.”
Wristify was awarded the $10,000 first prize at this year’s MADMEC, MIT’s annual materials-science design competition. The team plans to use the prize money to further develop their prototype.