A pacemaker that is powered through your skin, even while you move
Korean researchers made a wearable patch and a stretchy implant that pass power wirelessly. They tested it in rabbits and pigs, and it kept the heart paced.
Doctors put batteries inside pacemakers, and those batteries must be swapped by surgery. These researchers made a stretchy implant that gets power from a patch on the skin, even when the body moves. It worked in pigs. Humans are a long way off.
Hype check
Louder than it deserves. The real change is smaller.
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Why it matters
Implant batteries run out and need surgery. Wireless power that survives movement could one day end that. It has only been tried in animals.
Watch: shows how future implants may never need a battery swap.
The details
- The team is from the Institute for Basic Science and Seoul National University; it was published in Nature Electronics.
- A wearable transmitter, maybe a skin patch, adjusts its own frequency as the implant moves.
- The receiver uses stretchy liquid metal, so it keeps working when tissue stretches.
- Reported efficiency stays above 50% at 30% strain and 30 mm of misalignment.
- Tests were in rabbits and pigs. Human trials are still needed.
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