Full-body WPT: wireless powering with meandered e-textiles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a safe, efficient, and lightweight wireless power transfer system using meandered textile coils around the human body, suitable for wearable health and interaction devices.

Contribution

It presents a novel meandered textile coil design for localized wireless power transfer that enhances safety and efficiency compared to traditional methods.

Findings

High power transfer efficiency demonstrated in prototypes

System adapts well to user movement and posture

Localized magnetic fields improve safety and performance

Abstract

We present Full-body WPT, wireless power networking around the human body using a meandered textile coil. Unlike traditional inductive systems that emit strong fields into the deep tissue inside the body, the meander coil enables localized generation of strong magnetic field constrained to the skin surface, even when scaled to the size of the human body. Such localized inductive system enhances both safety and efficiency of wireless power around the body. Furthermore, the use of low-loss conductive yarn achieve energy-efficient and lightweight design. We analyze the performance of our design through simulations and experimental prototypes, demonstrating high power transfer efficiency and adaptability to user movement and posture. Our system provides a safe and efficient distributed power network using meandered textile coils integrated into wearable materials, highlighting the potential of body-centric wireless power networking as a foundational layer for ubiquitous health monitoring, augmented reality, and human-machine interaction systems.