Wireless charging and readout via textile coil for continuous full-body wearable computing

TL;DR

This paper presents a textile-based wireless charging and data readout system using a novel meandered coil design, enabling safe, efficient, and mass-producible full-body wearable computing without batteries.

Contribution

Introduction of a body-scale, textile meander coil for wireless power and data transfer, facilitating seamless, battery-free full-body wearable devices.

Findings

Confines strong inductive fields near the body surface

Ensures safe, low-power wireless charging and readout

Compatible with industrial knitting for mass production

Abstract

The growing use of wearable devices for activity tracking, healthcare, and haptics faces challenges due to the bulkiness and short lifespan of batteries. Integration of a textile-based wireless charging and readout system into everyday clothing can enable seamless power supply and data collection around the body. However, expanding such system to cover the entire body is challenging, as it increases electromagnetic interference with the body, degrading the performance of wireless system. This article introduces a meandered textile coil designed for body-scale, efficient wireless charging and readout. The meander coil can confine a strong inductive field near the body surface, ensuring W-class safe charging and sensitive readout with uW-class low power. Moreover, its zigzag design is simple enough for mass production on industrial knitting machines. Therefore, the body-scale meander coil can continuously operate battery-free wearable devices across the body, leading to ubiquitous deployment of continuous full-body wearable computing into everyday clothing.