Thermal Comfort via a Wrist Band

Update: This product is now called Embr Wave and is produced by Embr Labs, started by Mike Gibson ’12 and David Cohen-Tanugi SM ’12 and postdoc Matt Smith PhD ’12. 

Can’t get the room temperature just right? Whether you are wrangling with your family or workmates, getting a comfortable environment can be difficult. And expensive—building heating and cooling amount to some 16.5 percent of U.S. primary energy consumption.

A team of MIT students and alumni has a new low-cost solution: Wristify, a wrist cuff that allows individuals to maintain a comfortable body temperature independent of their environment. In essence, their thermoelectric bracelet monitors air and skin temperature and then responds with pulses of hot or cold waveforms to the wrist.

The Wristify team recently won first prize and $10,000 in MIT's Making and Designing Materials Engineering Competition (MADMEC)—that's after months of development and 15 prototypes.

Co-inventor Sam Shames ’14, a materials science and engineering senior, shared what’s next for the team in this Slice of MIT interview. Other co-inventors include graduate students Mike Gibson ’12 and David Cohen-Tanugi SM ’12 and postdoc Matt Smith PhD ’12.

How did the Wristify team make the key discovery that human skin is very sensitive to minute, rapid changes in temperature, which affect the whole body.

We first made the discovery from using our prototype. In particular, Matt Smith noticed that the device was more comfortable when using it in a manual pulsing mode, switching it on and off at controlled intervals. We all tried the bracelet in this mode and agreed with Matt's discovery. This led to the literature review on human thermal perception and the finding that supported that discovery, which in turn led us to incorporate automatic pulsing into the prototype.

How has the collaboration worked among the four co-inventors?

Our collaboration has worked very well. One important factor is that we all have a wide skill set ranging from technical to interpersonal. That has allowed everyone to contribute to all areas of the project, including prototyping, design, communication, and, more recently, marketing. In addition, another important factor has been consistent communication between the four of us about our goals and passions for this project and how we see it fitting into the broader schemes of our studies and careers.

What aspect of the project are you working on now?

Right now, in addition to continuing technical development—we have several ideas of how to further improve our device—we are making an intensive effort on the business side, looking into how best to leverage our resources to continue development and eventually bring this product to market. Specifically, this includes looking into different sources of funding and talking to as many people as possible to get advice from those who have been in our shoes before. We very much welcome input from the MIT community and anyone with experience and advice.

Go to the Wristify website to track the media buzz about this idea or contact the team.