Energy harvesting from ear canal during speaking: feasibility study and finite element simulation

Ear canal deformation caused by jaw joint movement is simulated in this paper and introduced as a candidate source of power to supply hearing aids devices power. The ear mold is prepared and the CT-Scan is performed using this mold in both open and close positions of the mouth. The ear canal model is created with Mimix, 3matic and Catia softwares. The mandible motion in cases of discussion, text reading, poem reading, greeting and speaking loudly is captured by opti-track camera and processed in Matlab software. Ear canal model and mandible path are imported to Abaqus finite element analysis software. Using the finite element model the output voltage of piezoelectric for each case of talking is calculated. Required electrical circuit to convert generated voltage from AC to DC is modeled in Matlab simulink and output power is determined. The results show that this module could supply a low power hearing aid for about 14 hours with considering individual talking activity per day. Also, with increasing the human age, the amount of output voltage from the piezoelectric harvesting device increases.