running shoe manufacturerDevelopment division
The Challenge of Building State-of-the-Art Smart Running ShoesThere are a lot of challenges in module development
Solutions
More Durable and Compact Sensor Module for Incorporation into Insoles
Solution Offered by EnerCera battery
A mere 0.45mm thick and able to withstand the bending force in the order of one million times, the EnerCera Pouch can be incorporated into running shoe insoles, in which durability is paramount.
When combined with a flexible wireless charging antenna (NGC, Qi, or wireless power transfer), EnerCera battery will no longer requires charging connector. EnerCera battery supports quick recharging, too.
EnerCera battery’s low self-discharge and low internal resistance mean it can be charged using minuscule currents and yet still output high power, allowing it to support prolonged data sensing and the long distance transmission of captured data.
EnerCera Pouch boasts a high cycle lifetime and an expected life of over five years, meaning there will be no need to change the battery during the lifetime of the shoe.
EnerCera: Ultra-Thin and Can be Bent a Million Times
The development team, in the process of gathering information on batteries, visited a trade fair that featured an exhibit on NGK’s ultra-compact EnerCera rechargeable battery. The team immediately asked a representative of NGK for details, and a few days later received advice from NGK on the features of EnerCera battery and on solutions to their problems. When the representative informed them that the EnerCera Pouch was a mere 0.45mm thick and could be bent in the order of one million times, enabling it to be incorporated into high-durability smart-shoe insoles by combining it with flexible electronics, the development team breathed a sigh of relief, realizing they now had a path to a solution.
Effortless Charging
Upon receiving their samples, the development team quickly set about building a new sensor module that incorporated the EnerCera Pouch. The prototypes they evaluated performed well, and the team succeeded in building a high-durability module that could be integrated into an insole. Furthermore, by combining EnerCera battery with a flexible wireless charging antenna (NGC, Qi, or wireless power transfer), it was possible to remove the charging connector. The EnerCera Pouch, which supports rapid charging, also performed well in tests. The team is currently testing a system in which the user needs simply to place their smart shoes in a dedicated charging area (such as a shoe box) to charge them.
The team also plans to evaluate Sigfox, LoRaWAN, cellular LPWA, and other long-distance wireless communications protocols not readily supported by conventional compact power sources, in addition to charging bywireless power transfer (WPT) and other technologies that improve convenience to the user.
