Researchers at the Centre for Materials Interfaces of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology, IIT) developed an ultrathin wearable device capable of reproducing a localized sensation of touch.
Aside from reproducing sensory feedback in prosthetic devices, the technology could also be used to control robots with a higher precision, provide information through Braille displays to people with vision loss, or as interfaces in virtual environments and gaming.
The new system, developed by doctoral student Arianna Mazzotta and Virgilio Mattoli, PhD, is an electronic tattoo that is a few micrometers thick and designed to arouse a tactile sensation, generating a force that pushes on the skin of the person who is wearing it, who perceive it as touch.
The researchers demonstrated the functioning of a single “tactile” dot, and they are working on the implementation of displays that will include several tactile pixels, called taxels, which can be activated independently one from each other, which would reproduce letters, numbers, and directional and dynamic patterns on the skin.
The tactile device is based on an electro-thermo-pneumatic actuation strategy, which consists of electrically heating a small volume of air enclosed between two very thin films. As it expands, the air generates forces and displacements on the skin placed in contact, producing the tactile sensation. Due to its very low thickness, the tattoo is virtually undetectable once transferred onto the skin, which is crucial for its potential final application as a tactile display.
Unlike other devices designed and proposed so far to generate tactile sensations through forces and deformations, the system is powered by a small battery, at low voltages, ensuring complete safety for the person who is wearing it, the researchers said.
Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by IIT.
The open-access study, “Ultrathin conformable electronic tattoo for tactile sensations,” was published in Advanced Electronic Materials.
