Could future wearables be driven by blinks and blood?

If you don’t fancy powering your gadgets by sweating, how about by blinking? Or, er, bleeding?

Naomi Kizhner is an industrial designer, and for her final project at Hadassah Academic College in Israel, she focused on the potential of wearable technology and the ways it could combine with our bodily functions. It’s designed to get us thinking about whether this is a good thing, and at what point it becomes intrusive.

She came up with ideas for futuristic wearables fuelled by different movements. Each prototype was made using a 3D printer and features a gold filament (because gold conducts electricity so well).

Then she made an atmospheric short film, Energy Addicts, to demonstrate their possible applications. They include what looks like a miniature pair of horns attached to the nose and the top of the eyes in order to turn energy from blinking into electricity, and a miniature arm turbine that’s powered by the blood flow triggered by anxiously smoking a cigarette (which might cause more problems than it solves).

According to Co Exist, Kizhner said, ‘Technically, there are developments today that can make these devices real, but theoretically speaking, I don’t know if we’re willing to sacrifice our bodies this way to make energy. It kind of dehumanizes us – it uses the body as a vessel.’

What do you think – do you feel invaded by the idea of turning your body’s everyday functions into energy, or does it only make sense to be efficient?