6G cellular network could harness the human body for energy

Photo: SERGEI GAPON/AFP/Getty Images

While the 5G cellular network is still in the process of entering all world markets, scientists are already working on the characteristics of the 6Gwhich could harnessing the human body for energy.

Among the most promising advances in 6G telecommunications is the possibility of visible light communication (VLC), which is like a wireless version of fiber opticswhich uses flashes of light to convey information.

Now, a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has announced that they have invented an innovative and low-cost way of collect residual energy from the VLC using the human body like antenna.

According to scientists, this residual energy can be recycled to power a whole host of devices laptops or even, perhaps, larger electronic devices.

“Instead of using radio signals to send information wirelessly (the VLC), it uses light from LEDs that can turn on and off up to a million times per second”explains Jie Xiong, professor of Information Science and Computing at UMass Amherst and lead author of the paper.

The human body as a receptor of energy

Previously, researchers showed that there is a significant energy “leak” in VLC systems, because the LEDs also emit “side channel radio frequency (RF) signals”, or radio waves. So they established that if this filtered radio frequency energy could be collected, could be used.

The team’s first task was design an antenna of coiled copper wire to collect the filtered RF. But how to maximize energy capture?

The team experimented with all sorts of details from the thickness of the wire to the number of times it was wound, but he also found that the effectiveness of the antenna varied depending on what it touched. They tested resting the coil on plastic, cardboard, wood, and steel, as well as touching walls of different thicknesses, phones turned on and off, and laptops. Then they came up with the idea of see what happened when the coil came into contact with a human body.

They immediately discovered that a human body is the best medium to amplify the coil’s capacity to collect filtered RF energy, up to ten times more than the bare coil alone.

So, after many experiments, the team came up with “Bracele +”a simple coil of copper wire worn as a bracelet on the upper forearm.

“Bracelet+ can reach up to microwattsenough to support many sensors, such as those for monitoring health in the body, which need little power to function due to their low sampling frequency and long duration in sleep mode”, the study authors point out.

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