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Space-tech could make life easier for diabetics

13 December 2007

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Nicole Schmiedel from Braunschweig University of Arts, Germany, has designed an insulin pump as a trendy-looking wristwatch. The insulin pump is electrically autonomous thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites. In space applications they are used for micro-positioning and vibration damping of optics embedded on satellites, such as those incorporated in the MIDAS instrument onboard ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser.

Credits: ESA

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Trendy-looking insulin pump wristwatch designed by Schmiedel

German design student Nicole Schmiedel from Braunschweig University of Arts in Germany has created a trendy-looking wristwatch containing an innovative ultra-light insulin pump to help people with type 1 diabetes. The insulin pump is electrically autonomous thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites.

Credits: ESA

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To help people with type 1 diabetes the German design student Nicole Schmiedel has designed a novel insulin pump named COR as a trendy looking wristwatch. In the same line she also designed a lancet to contain test strips.

Credits: Nicole Schmiedel

Piezo-electric transducer space technology – squeezing electricity out of a crystal

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Rosetta swung by Mars on 25 February 2007.

Credits: ESA (Image by C. Carreau)

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COR driven by piezo-electric space technology

The innovative ultra-light insulin pump designed by Nicole Schmiedel as a wristwatch produces its own electricity thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites.

Credits: Stefan Linke, INVENT

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Stefan Linke from INVENT, Germany, presents the piezo-electric transducer technology at the European Space Technology Transfer Conference 2007, an initiative of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office. The piezo-electric transducer technology was originally developed for space programmes back in the 1990s. Onboard the Rosetta satellite this technology is used for micro-adjusting the positions of the MIDAS instrument as well as for its vibration damping.

Credits: ESA