Electronic skin: how to empower the human body

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What if smart gadgets could not only be worn with straps and bracelets, but also glued directly to the skin? Lifehacker and N + 1 share a selection of the most interesting developments in the field of "electronic tattoos".

In the field of cutaneous electronics, two main approaches can be distinguished. The first is to create devices that measure various physiological parameters of the body. Another approach involves not using the existing capabilities of the human body, but expanding them.

The authors of the DuoSkin project from MIT and Microsoft Research were inspired by the gold jewelry applied directly to the skin, which is gaining popularity in Asian countries. The "tattoos" they create are composed of gold leaf applied to a biocompatible silicone film. They can be used as a touchpad or button, synchronized with other devices, or as an antenna.

Technology recently demonstrated Inflammation-free, gas-permeable, lightweight, stretchable on-skin electronics with nanomeshes. by Japanese scientists, although it looks similar to the previous one, it is arranged in a completely different way. These "tattoos" are made up of a huge amount of intertwined gold fibers that are applied directly to the skin without any substrates. Thanks to this, they not only turned out to be electrically conductive and flexible, but also allowed the skin to "breathe" and sweat. According to scientists, they tested their product in everyday conditions for a week, and all this time the "tattoos" worked flawlessly and did not cause any inconvenience to their "owners".

Skin electronics, like any other, require a power supply. For this purpose, Chinese scientists have developed a transparent and elastic tribogenerator Ultrastretchable, a transparent triboelectric nanogenerator as electronic skin for biomechanical energy harvesting and tactile sensing. that generates an electric current when touched. Researchers have shown that it has enough power even to power a small display.

American engineers proposed not to glue electronics, but to print 3D Printed Stretchable Tactile Sensors. it directly on the skin in just a few minutes. For example, they printed pressure sensors on a model of a hand that can be used as buttons to control devices and even as a heart rate monitor.

A US-Korean group of scientists has unveiled a patch with a miniature acoustic sensor that can serve as a precision microphone that hears only sounds coming from the wearer, but not surrounding noises. With his help, the researchers even played Pac-Man with voice-controlled characters.

Korean scientists have created a transparent and flexible touchpad Highly stretchable, transparent ionic touch panel., which can be fixed directly on the arm, or rather on the forearm. A weak current is applied to its corners, and when touched, the circuit is closed.

The coordinates of the finger are calculated in real time from the change in current in the corners, due to which such a touchpad does not matter how much it is stretched. This gives the user more freedom of action.

Since carrying a huge touchpad or other device on your hand is not very convenient, the engineers at MIT made a miniature Thumbnail track pad. that attaches to the thumb. This device can be used, for example, during cooking: leafing through a recipe without letting go of food and kitchen utensils. A great way to control your computer or phone when your hands are busy.

Engineers from Carnegie Mellon University decided to use the skin directly as a control device. To do this, they fixed a special bracelet with two electrodes and a high-frequency emitter on their hand.

When a person touches the forearm, the system calculates the location of the finger based on the distance from the signal propagation point to each of the two electrodes. Thus, the technology turns the hand into a large touchpad with which you can control various devices, for example, play Angry Birds on your watch.