A team of researchers from the University of the City of Hong Kong (Cityu) has made an exciting breakthrough in the field of interactive tactile communication. They recently developed Wireless and wireless electronic skin This has not only the ability to feel touching but also to transmit the feeling of contact. It can also form a touch network which allows the user to interact simultaneously with several other people. Such development opens up large opportunities to improve interactive touchscreen communication.
According to Dr. Yu Xinge, an associate professor in the Cityu biomedical engineering department (BME), with the rapid development of virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), visual and auditory experiences are no longer enough to create an immersive experience. Sensory communication can become a revolution in interaction throughout the metavese.
Although the modern market can offer many examples of interfaces that simulate tactile sensations in the virtual world, they generally provide tactile detection or tactile feedback. However, the electronic skin developed by Cityu researchers can fulfill the functions of self-determination and tactile reproduction on the same interface. This unique characteristic makes it possible to obtain two -way tactile transmission at the same time.
The electronic skin contains 16 flexible actuators arranged in a table 4 x 4, a microcontroller unit (MCU), a Bluetooth module and other electronics on a flexible printed circuit card. The actuator generates a current when in a hurry, providing electrical signals for the tactile sensation to a corresponding actuator located on another electronic skin sample. The more the user presses hard, the more bright and longer the sensation on the other electronic skin.
The electrical signal generated by actuators is converted into a digital signal using an analog-numeric converter. When a signal is received, a current is led to reproduce tactile feedback on the skin E of the receiver through mechanical vibrations.
Although each actuator can only perform one task at a time, the rest of the 15 actuators located on the electronic skin patch can complement each other and fill the function of perception or tactile reproduction, allowing the bidirectional tactile transmission to be carried out at the same time.
Dr. Yu notes that their e-skin can communicate with Bluetooth devices and transmit data via the Internet with smartphones and computers to carry out an ultra-dissecting tactile transmission. It can also form an internet tactile system of objects (IoT), allowing tactile delivery one by one and one in culture. Friends and family in different places could use it to “feel”, overcome the limits of space and considerably reduce the meaning of distance in human communication.
