Canadian engineers build chinstrap that produces electricity from chewing, talking

Engineers in Canada have recently built a chinstrap that would allow people to harnesses energy from chewing and talking in order to turn it into electricity.

The device could one day take the place of batteries in hearing aids, earpieces and other small gadgets, the BBC reported.

Dr Aidin Delnavaz and Dr Jeremie Voix, mechanical engineers at the Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal, Canada, suggested that jaw movements are a promising candidate for harvesting natural energy.

Made from a "smart" material that becomes electrically charged when stretched, the prototype needs to be made 20 times more efficient in order to generate useful amounts of power. The researchers claimed that they could achieve this by adding layers of the material.

Developers also pointed out its military applications, such as soldiers wearing head protection and communicating using earpieces.

The work appears in the Institute of Physics journal Smart Materials and Structures.