Energy harvesting for sensor systems

Abstract

Described is an energy harvesting system comprising a transducer that generates an electric signal from ambient energy, and a processor adapted to process the electric signal to determine and output a characteristic of a source of the ambient energy. The characteristic may be a spoken word classification.

1 . An energy harvesting system comprising:
 a transducer that generates an electric signal from ambient energy; and   a processor adapted to process the electric signal to determine and output a characteristic of a source of the ambient energy, wherein the characteristic is a spoken word classification.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the ambient energy is kinetic or vibration energy generated by an activity, and the transducer is a kinetic energy harvester. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein the kinetic energy harvester comprises two or three orthogonal transducers providing multi-axial electric signals that comprise identifying features associated with directions of the activity. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the transducer is a piezoelectric transducer that has a cantilevered beam configuration with a substantially horizontal orientation. 
     
     
         5 . (canceled) 
     
     
         6 . (canceled) 
     
     
         7 . A method comprising:
 receiving and transforming ambient energy into an electrical signal;   processing the electrical signal to extract at least one distinguishing feature;   classifying a source of the ambient energy based on the at least one distinguishing feature; and   outputting the classification,   wherein classification may be a spoken word classification.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein:
 the ambient energy is kinetic or vibration energy, 
 the receiving and transforming is performed by a kinetic energy harvester, and 
 the kinetic energy harvester is a piezoelectric transducer. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the piezoelectric transducer has a cantilevered beam configuration and has a substantially horizontal orientation. 
     
     
         10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . (canceled)