Pacemaker batteries may one day be kept topped up by the beating of the heart – the very thing that the pacemaker is there to regulate.
The generator, developed at Southampton University Hospital in the UK, consists of two small liquid-filled balloons placed at separate locations within the heart and connected by a silicone tube containing a moveable magnet. As the heart beats, it squeezes each balloon in turn, pushing liquid through the tube. This forces the magnet to move back and forth past a coil embedded in the tube, generating electricity that can be used to recharge the battery.
When…
