Dyson Energy Bracelet is a gadget that uses Seebeck effect to harness energy and power your mobile phones for a few precious minutes more, when you desperately need it. Lemme explain a bit: The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa. This typically includes three separately identified effects, the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, and the Thomson effect. This is coz three different guys discovered it around the same time, however Peltier–Seebeck and Thomson effects are reversible and Joule heating is not.
The designers explain:
Thanks to the Seebeck effect, the temperature difference between the surface which touch the skin and the other which is in the ambient air allows to produce electricity that is stocked in a battery. When the user needs to recharge a mobile device, he plugs it into the Dyson Energy through a micro-USB port (universal connector imposed to constructors in 2012) and can have some additional minutes in use.
Firstly, we have tested the Peltier element in its most common use: i.e. the creation of heat and coldness on the same component (Seebeck effect), and we have noticed that there was electricity production. We have met an engineer who allowed us to evolve on our project while explaining us that there was not possible to plug the elements serially. Therefore, we chose to work with only one element. As a result of many calculations, we have validated this technology payoff regarding our concept. For instance, some hours are sufficient to power its cellphone for a dozen minutes of communication.
Designers: Mathieu Servais, Camille Lefer, Clément Faydi & Mickaël Denié