A team of Chinese researchers have recently developed a new type of self-powered flexible and transparent electronic skin to monitor subtle human activities, shedding light on the future of wearable electronics. This new e-skin integrates a flexible transparent supercapacitor (超级电容器) as an energy storage device with a stretchable transparent strain sensor (应变传感器). Thanks to its mechanical softness, the integrated e-skin can be directly attached to various parts on the body.
As the largest organ of human body, skin is responsible for multiple major functions such as protection, perspiration, regulation of body temperature, and sensory stimulation (刺激). It forms the basis of people's physical interactions with the outside world.
The ideal e-skin should be highly sensitive, self-powered, and suitable for the human skin. "Inspired by sensory functions and performance of real human skin, we have made the new e-skin both flexible and transparent to serve multiple functions. After charging, it is capable of monitoring people's subtle physical signals and multi-scaled activities in real time. It can measure a person's pulse, tell when they are swallowing, and detect other body movements," said Lan Wei, a professor at the School of Physical Science and Technology of Lanzhou University and the leader of the research team.
E-skin is the core of future wearable electronic devices. The new invention can be applied in smart health care, human-machine interaction, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. For example, it could help surgeons control surgical robots more precisely, enable people to "touch" over long distances, and create more immersive gaming experiences.
Going ahead, the research team will focus on strengthening the sensory capacity and power supply of the e-skin, making it even more like human skin, which will in turn make it more adaptive to various future applications.
