Publications related to Watch | EPFL Graph Search

Pivot, process for manufacturing such a pivot, oscillator comprising such a pivot, watch movement and timepiece comprising such an oscillator

Simon Nessim Henein, Loïc Benoît Tissot-Daguette

The present invention concerns a pivot comprising two assemblies, namely a central assembly (401) and a peripheral assembly (400). These two assemblies are mobile in rotation relative to each other around an axis of rotation (A). The pivot is characterized ...

2024

Hydraulically Amplified Electrostatic Taxels (HAXELs) for Full Body Haptics

Herbert Shea, Edouard Franck Vincent Gustave Leroy

The ability to mechanically stimulate touch receptors over the entire body is a key feature for fully immersive and highly realistic virtual reality experience. Haptic stickers, flexible arrays of HAXELs (hydraulically amplified TAXels), that enable cutane ...

Wiley2023

Triple Crossed Flexure Pivot Based on a Zero Parasitic Center Shift Kinematic Design

Simon Nessim Henein, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann

Thanks to their absence of play, absence of contact friction and possible monolithic fabrication, flexure pivots offer advantages over traditional bearings in small-scale, high accuracy applications and environments where lubrication and wear debris are pr ...

2022

Enhancing our understanding of human fine manipulation skills and advancing robot dexterity in grasping

Kunpeng Yao

From surgery to watchmaking, fine-manipulation skills highly rely on the dexterity afforded by both hands. Coordination is key to human dexterity. Specifically, humans need not only to govern the abundant intrinsic degrees of freedom (DOFs) to allocate con ...

EPFL2022

Optical measurement method for mechanical time base characterization

Simon Nessim Henein, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann

The recent adoption of silicon components by the mechanical watch industry has triggered the search for new time bases to advantageously replace the traditional balance and hairspring oscillator. In particular, flexure-based oscillators manufactured in sil ...

euspen2021

Rocker oscillator time bases

Simon Nessim Henein, Ilan Vardi

Since the invention of the pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens in 1657, precision timekeepers have been regulated by oscillators. Although the pendulum is not an isochronous oscillator, its introduction as a time basis for clock regulation led to a signif ...

2021

Real-world gait speed estimation, frailty and handgrip strength: a cohort-based study

Kamiar Aminian, Anisoara Ionescu, Abolfazl Soltani

Gait speed is a reliable outcome measure across multiple diagnoses, recognized as the 6th vital sign. The focus of the present study was on assessment of gait speed in long-term real-life settings with the aim to: (1) demonstrate feasibility in large cohor ...

Nature Portfolio2021

Flexure Pivot Oscillators for Mechanical Watches

Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann

It appears that the concerted efforts of the watchmaking industry are leading towards a limit in mechanical watch accuracy. The general consensus in horology is that the time base's quality factor, a dimensionless number that characterizes the oscillator d ...

EPFL2020

Tribological Approach to the Watch Movements

Valentine Agnès Madeleine Magnin

Mechanical watches are complex and sensitive systems that have to maintain a faultless precision over their lifetime. However, this precision can be altered by disturbances occurring during the functioning time, such as friction, lubricant drying, or wear, ...

EPFL2020

Flexure Pivot Oscillator With Intrinsically Tuned Isochronism

Simon Nessim Henein, Ilan Vardi, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann, Mohammad Hussein Kahrobaiyan

The most important property for accurate mechanical time bases is isochronism: the independence of period from oscillation amplitude. This paper develops a new concept in isochronism adjustment for flexure-based watch oscillators. Flexure pivot oscillators ...

2020

Conceptual design of a rotational mechanical time base with varying inertia

Simon Nessim Henein, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann

Flexure pivot oscillators have the potential to advantageously replace the traditional balance wheel-spiral spring oscillator used in mechanical watches due to their significantly lower friction. However, they have inherent nonlinear elastic properties tha ...

2019

Micropipette calibration by differential pressure measurements

Philippe Renaud, David Vincent Bonzon

The pipetting of small volumes, typically ranging between a few and one thousand microliters (mu l), is widely used in many laboratories and essentially relies on air displacement to aspirate and dispense the liquid contained in a small plastic tip. ...

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2019

Apparatus for non-invasive sensing of biomarkers in human sweat

Mihai Adrian Ionescu, Erick Antonio Garcia Cordero, Johan Frédéric Longo, Hoël Maxime Guérin, Francesco Bellando, Fabien Patrick Wildhaber

Presented herein are devices for collecting and/or channeling a biofluid (e.g., sweat, tears, saliva) and detecting and/or quantifying one or more biomarkers in the biofluid. The biomarker(s) may include, for example, ions, salts thereof, hormones and/or s ...

2019

Appearance of polished 18 karat gold surfaces: linking aesthetics to surface features

Leili Batooli

Impeccable appearance of surfaces is a key constraint in high-end jewelry and watch manufacturing. Based on long tradition in the industry, appearance of products is assessed by trained individuals through visual inspection in designated intervals on the p ...

EPFL2019

MEMS Generator Study for an Embedded Energy Harvesting System

Jasha Poliakine

This work has been triggered by an industrial project targeting the development of a novel regulation system for a mechanical watch. Mechanical watches have been known for over a century as one of the finest example of energy autonomous devices, embodying ...

EPFL2018

Programmable Multistable Mechanisms: Design, modeling, characterization and applications

Mohamed Gamal Abdelrahman Ahmed Zanaty

Multistable Mechanisms are mechanical devices having more than one stable state. Since these mechanisms can maintain different deformations with zero force, they are advantageous for low power environments such as wristwatches and medical devices. In this ...

EPFL2018

Flexure-Pivot Oscillator Restoring Torque Nonlinearity and Isochronism Defect

Simon Nessim Henein, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann, Mohammad Hussein Kahrobaiyan

Flexure pivot based oscillators can advantageously replace the hairspring and balance wheel, the time base used in mechanical watches, by drastically reducing friction. However, flexure pivots have drawbacks including gravity sensitivity and restoring torq ...

AMER SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS2018

Gravity-Insensitive Flexure Pivot Oscillators

Simon Nessim Henein, Ilan Vardi, Etienne Frédéric Gabriel Thalmann, Lennart Rubbert, Mohammad Hussein Kahrobaiyan

Classical mechanical watch plain bearing pivots have frictional losses limiting the quality factor of the hairspring-balance wheel oscillator. Replacement by flexure pivots leads to a drastic reduction in friction and an order of magnitude increase in qual ...

2018

An IoT Solution for Online Monitoring of Anesthetics in Human Serum Based on an Integrated Fluidic Bioelectronic System

Giovanni De Micheli, Sandro Carrara, Francesca Stradolini, Tugba Kilic, Sofia Lydia Ntella, Abuduwaili Tuoheti, Danilo Demarchi, Nadia Tamburrano, Zijian Huang

In this paper, we present the design, the implementation and the validation of a novel Internet of Things (IoT) drug monitoring system for the online continuous and simultaneous detection of two main anesthetics, e.g., propofol and paracetamol, in undilute ...

2018

Mechanical properties of tailored nanostructured alloys produced by electrodeposition

Juri Aljoscha Wehrs

The studies presented in this thesis aim to extend the current knowledge and understanding of the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline materials with respect to temperature- and time dependence. Free standing electrodeposited nanocrystalline nickel speci ...

EPFL2017