ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a review in the state of the art of energy harvesting and focuses interest on the idea of using different types of energy harvesting sources to drive ultra low-power electronics. This approach is followed to develop new portable biodevices for human wearable and implantable devices. Three main solutions are developed based on the type of transducer or microgenerator: piezoelectric, electrostatic, and electromagnetic. There are wide ranging scenarios where this type of harvesting is or could be applied basically to monitor structural integrities. The authors have introduced the types of sources that can recovery energy from the environment, and among them they have introduced an application of interest for monitoring the mechanical condition of infrastructures in the application of sensors in the environment of intelligent buildings, surveillance systems, and medical implants. There are other implantable devices that are more oriented toward biomechanical applications: in particular, the resources needed for monitoring prosthetic implants that are used in human beings to replace joints and bones.
