From blinking and smiling to jaw clenching and eyebrow raising, faces are constantly in motion — and generating tiny amounts of energy along the way.
Now, Northwestern University engineers are putting that energy to work.
In a new study, the team developed a wholly new type of smart glasses equipped with tiny sensors that harvest mechanical energy from facial movements and convert it into electrical power. Even a quick blink or an artery’s faint pulsing provides enough mechanical energy to activate the highly sensitive sensors.