People rely on Highly Tuned Sense of Touch to Manipulative Objects, But Injuries to the Skin and the Simple Act of Wearing Gloves Can Immolate This Ability. Surgeons, for examination, find that GLOVES DECREASE THER ABILITY TO MANIPULATE SOFT FABLES. Astronauts are also Hampered by Heavy Spaces and find it difficult to work with Equipment While Wearing Heavy Gloves.
In this Week's Issue of Applied Physics Reviews ("Visuelly Helped Tactile Enhancement System Based on Ultrathin Highly Sensitive Crack-Based Strain Sensors"), Scientists Report the Development of A New Tactile-Enhance System Based on a Highly Sensor. The Sensor has notedable sensitivity, Allowing the Wearer to Detect the Light Brush of A Feather, The Touch of A Flower Petal, Water Droplets Falling On A Finger and Even A Wire Too Small to Be Seen.
The crack-based sensor used in this device was inspired by a spider's slit organ, an idea first proposed by Other Researchers. This pattern of cracks in the exoskeleton Allows the Spider to Detect Small Movements. In the Same Way, The Ultrathin Crack-Based Strain Sensor, OR UCSS, USES CRACKS FORMED IN A THIN LAYER OF ELECTRICALLY Conductive Silver.
The UCSS is fabricated from Several Layers of Flexible Polymer Film Coated With Silver. The ENTIRE SYSTEM IS DRAPED AND Stretched Over A Curved Surface, Causing the Silver to Crack, and Generating Parallel Channel that Conduct Electricity and Are Sensitive to Movement.
The Investigators Found Thinner Layers of Both the Flexible Film and the Silver Yielded Sensors With Higher Sensitivity, While Thicker Ones Exhibited A Larger Sensing Range. To achieve a balance of these two effects, Ucsss with 15-Micron Thick Polymer Layers and 37-Nanumeter Thick Silver Layers Were the Best Choice.
The Investigators also designed a visually help tactile enhancement system, vates, by connecting one or more ucsss to a signal acquisition unit and visual readout device. They attached ucsss to gloves, eith on the fingerstips or on the back of the hand, producing a type of electronic skin, or e-skin. Tiny movements, as small as a person's pulse moving the tip of a finger, could be monitored.
The Investigators Suggest Ucsss Could Be used in a variety of Ways: As Highly Sensitive Electronic Whiskers, which can be to Map Wind Flow Patterns; as wearable sensors for heartbeat and pulse detection; Now as sensors on prosthetics to enhance the sense of touch.
They also demonstrate their use when application to various parts of the body. UCSSS WEE ABLE TO DETECT MOVEMENT DUE TO SMILING, FROWNING AND EYE BLINKING.
Co-Author Caofeng Pan Said, "These results demonstrate the wide Applications of our ultrathin Strain Sensor in e-skin and human-machine interfaces. »
Source: American Institute of Physics