The energy harvesting from the human body seems to be an interesting source of energy to supply the wearables. The dynamic energy of the movements of human body parts is one of the most promising sources of energy. An unsuspected place where such a dynamic is found is the external earcanal. The proximity between the earcanal and the mandibular condyle causes earcanal deformations when the jaw is in motion. For example, when a person talks or eats. This opens up the possibility of using this energy to power various ear-mounted devices such as hearing aids or intelligent in-ear headphones. This would reduce their reliance on single-use batteries, which are currently the most widely used energy source for those devices.
Designing a micro-in-the-ear energy harvesting device is a complex task. This is why it is essential to define the dynamic environment of the ear canal beforehand. The objective of this thesis is to develop a sensor capable of measuring the available power from the earcanal as a function of temporomandibular activity.
The designed sensor consists of a water-filled earplug, a hydraulic pressure transducer and an acquisition system. Eight participants wore the sensor, over test periods ranging from ten minutes to three hours. The recorded pressure is transformed into instantaneous power and then evaluated for different temporomandibular activities. To detect these activities, an audio recording is taken simultaneously inside and outside an occluded ear. Subsequently, a verbal and non-verbal event classification algorithm was used to detect activities such as eating, talking and swallowing.
The average instantaneous power found is 26.2mW for the chewing activity. Similarly, the power sensor measured 3.8mW for the activity of speaking. This knowledge can help in the design of efficient micro-energy harversting systems. This study shows that the deformation of the earcanal is a sufficient and available source of energy during the period of use of such devices.
| Date | 16 Mar 2020 |
|---|
| Original language | French |
|---|
| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
|
|---|
| Supervisor | Jérémie Voix (Supervisor) |
|---|
Bouchard-Roy, J. (Author),
Voix (Supervisor),
16 Mar 2020Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Mechanical Engineering