In the near future, it may be possible to feel the hug of another person through the Internet thanks to the development of new technology.
A research team at the City University of Hong Kong has created a soft, wireless electronic skin that can detect and provide the sense of touch, as well as form a tactile network that enables single-to-multiple user interaction. This technology offers great potential to enhance immersion in tactile communication at a distance.
Remote tactile communication
Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong Dr. Yu Xinge explained that with the rapid development of virtual and augmented reality, our visual and auditory senses are not enough for us to create an immersive experience. Tactile communication could be a revolution in the way we interact across the metaverse.
Although there are numerous haptic interfaces on the market to simulate touch sensation in the virtual world, they only provide touch sensing or haptic feedback. The uniqueness of this new electronic skin is that it can perform auto-sensing and haptic playback functions in the same interface.
The electronic skin contains 16 flexible actuators on an array, a microcontroller unit, a Bluetooth module, and other electronic components on a flexible circuit board. All components are combined into a device resembling a 7 cm x 10 cm, 4.2 mm thick skin patch.
The button-shaped actuator, comparable in size to a Hong Kong dime, is the core part of the electronic skin. Each of the actuators consists of a flexible coil, a soft silicone holder, a magnet, and a thin polydimethylsiloxane film, which perform the functions of tactile sensing and haptic feedback based on electromagnetic induction.
Once the actuator is depressed and released by an external force, a current is induced to provide electrical signals for tactile sensation to a corresponding actuator on another electronic skin patch. The more you press the emitter, the stronger and longer lasting the sensation generated in the other electronic skin.
The electrical signal generated by the actuators is converted to a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter on the circuit board of the electronic skin patch. The data is then transmitted to the actuators in another electronic skin via Bluetooth.
When the signal is received, a current is induced to reproduce the haptic feedback in the electronic skin of the receiver through mechanical vibration. The process can be reversed to send vibrations from the electronic skin of the receiver to the corresponding actuator of the transmitter.
Although each actuator can perform only one task at a time, the rest of the 15 actuators in the e-skin can complement each other and perform haptic sensing or playback function, allowing the patch to achieve bi-directional transmission.
In addition to remote tactile communication and its potential exploitation in conjunction with virtual reality, the electronic skin also has possible applications in the robotics industry and industrial manufacturing, as it can provide haptic feedback to improve precision in the manipulation of objects. objects.
The research team behind this project is currently working on improving the accuracy of touch detection and playback, as well as reducing the size and cost of the device to facilitate broader adoption.
