There’s been a growing trend lately for wearable tech and the Wristify bracelet may be counted among its pioneers. This gadget won’t help you monitor anything, but will help you regulate your body temperature in response to your environment.
Developed by four MIT engineering students who later founded Cambridge Mass.-based Embr Labs, the bracelet can cool or heat the skin around the wearer’s wrist, similar to how one would dip their feet in water to cool down on a hot summer’s day.
The device won first prize in MIT’s annual Making and Designing Materials Engineering Competition (MADMEC) early in its development and has recently won Proto Labs’ Cool Idea! Award – a service grant to help innovative companies get their projects off the ground.
The Wristify prototype first received media attention in 2013 and now the wearable looks like it came straight out of Star Trek. The team behind the device hopes it can be used to cut the amount of energy currently consumed to heat and cool entire buildings.
The thermoelectric bracelet influences a person’s perception of how warm or cold a room feels by sending pulses of warmth or cold to the wrist. It can’t exactly change your body temperature, but even some relief is still relief.
The MIT team found that rapid changes in temperature on one part of the body could affect the whole body, according to a 2013 article by Gizmag. A change of even 0.1° C (0.18° F) a second is the minimum rate required to make one’s body feel significantly warmer or cooler. Subsequent prototypes were capable of rates of change equal to 0.4° (0.7°).
The team told Gizmag that adjusting the temperature of just one building by 1° C (1.8° F) could consume an additional 100 kWh per month. For curiosity’s sake, the average industrial electricity rate in Cambridge, Mass. Is 12.57¢/kWh. 100 kWh per month saved translates to $150.84 annually.
Embr Labs will be using the Cool Idea! Award manufacturing grant for custom prototype parts from Proto Labs, like their CNC-machined aluminum enclosures and Santoprene bottom components.
“The prototypes we have built out from Proto Labs’ manufactured parts have been the best prototypes used to date,” said Sam Shames, one of four co-founders of Embr Labs. “The parts have been greatly beneficial in the prototype phase and we’ve been really pleased with the general aesthetic and design, which have a sleek look and feel to them. Plus, the functionality of these parts has been great.”
Wristify’s developers say the wearable could be on the market within the next year, but retail prices have yet to be determined.
“Wristify fits well into its niche and should successfully ride the wearable device trend,” said Larry Lukis, founder of Proto Labs. I see Wristify taking a prominent place next to another wearable bracelet that’s utilitarian – the Fitbit.”
For more information on the Wristify bracelet, visit www.embrlabs.com or check out protlabs.com/coolidea to learn more about the Cool Idea! Award.