Researchers have recently devised an ultrathin pressure sensor that can be attached directly to the skin. This tiny device can gauge how fingers interact with objects to produce helpful data for both technological and medical applications.
The sensor has a slight effect on the sensitivity and ability of the users to grip objects. It is also described as "resistant to disruption from rubbing."
Reports on this new finding indicate that the team is also hoping that their invention can be used for the innovative task of electronically archiving the craft workers' skills.
There are various reasons the study authors wish to record motion, as well as other physical details associated with both hands and fingers.
The hands are the primary mechanisms for directly interacting with and handling materials and immediate environments.
A 'Nanomesh Sensor'
By recording the way in which hands do different tasks, it could help researchers in various fields like medical science, sports, and neuroengineering, among others.
However, capturing this data is not an easy task. According to Lecturer Sunghoon Lee of The Someya Group at the University of Tokyo, the fingertips are highly sensitive. They are "so sensitive, in fact, that a superthin plastic foil, just a few millionths of a meter thick," is adequate to impact the sensations of an individual.
Therefore, the expert added, a wearable sensor for the fingers needs to be exceptionally thin. However, this evidently makes it very delicate and prone to damage from rubbing or repeated physical actions.
To overcome this, the researchers developed a special functional material that they describe as "thin and porous called a 'nanomesh sensor.'"
Lee, together with his team, created two kinds of layers for their sensors. Both of which were made by a process they called "electrospinning," resembling a spider that spins its web.
Layers Made for the Sensors
One of the layers is an insulating polyurethane mesh containing roughly 200 nanometers to 400 nanometers thick. This, as compared in the study, is equivalent to "about one-five-hundredth the thickness of hair of a human."
Meanwhile, the second layer is described as a "stencil-like network of lines," forming the sensor's functional electronic component.
This layer is made from gold. It utilizes a supporting frame of polyvinyl alcohol, frequently found in contact lenses, which after creation, is washed away to leave just the gold traces it initially supported. Numerous layers combine to form a well-designed and helpful pressure and movement sensor.
Lee said they conducted a laborious set of trials on their sensors "with the help of 18 test subjects." His team confirmed that the sensors were unnoticeable and affected neither the fingers' ability to grip things through fiction nor their observed sensitivity compared to performing a similar task minus a sensor attached. This, Lee continued, is exactly the result the had waited for.
Pioneering Invention
This is the first time in the world when a fingertip-mounted sensor without effect on the sensitivity of the skin has been successfully presented.
More so, the said sensor retained its performance as a pressure sensor even after it got rubbed against a surface with a 100-kilopascal force, approximately equivalent to atmospheric pressure, 300 times sans breaking.
An innovative application the research team would like to achieve is the digital archiving of fragile craftwork by artisans or even highly-skilled surgeons'
If such processes can be archived, it could turn out to be possible to train machines in the manner of performing tasks to a greater level of fidelity than has ever been attained in the past.
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