The possibility of sensing a hug from a loved one over the internet may soon become a reality, thanks to a new invention by a research team led by the City University of Hong Kong. The team has developed a wireless, soft electronic skin or e-skin that can detect and deliver the sense of touch, forming a touch network that allows one-to-multiuser interaction. The e-skin has the potential to greatly enhance the immersion of distance touch communication.

While numerous haptic interfaces in the market simulate tactile sensation in the virtual world, they offer only touch sensing or haptic feedback. The novelty of the new e-skin is that it can perform self-sensing and haptic reproducing functions on the same interface.

The e-skin contains 16 flexible actuators in a 4 X 4 array, a microcontroller unit, a Bluetooth module, and other electronics on a flexible circuit board. All the components are combined in a 7cm X 10cm, 4.2 mm-thick skin-patch-like device.

Each button-like actuator, comparable in size to a 10-cent coin in Hong Kong, serves as the core part of the e-skin. Each actuator consists of a flexible coil, a soft silicone support, a magnet, and a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film, which performs the touch sensing and haptic feedback functions based on electromagnetic induction.

Once the actuator is pressed and released, a current is induced to provide electrical signals for tactile sensation to a corresponding actuator in another e-skin patch. The deeper the sender presses, the stronger and longer the feeling generated on the other e-skin.

The electrical signal generated from the actuators is converted to a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter on the circuit board of the e-skin patch. The data is then transmitted to the actuators on another e-skin via Bluetooth.

When the signal is received, a current is induced to reproduce the haptic feedback on the receiver’s e-skin through mechanical vibration. The process can be reversed to deliver vibrations from the receiver’s e-skin to the corresponding actuator of the sender’s.

Although each actuator can perform only one task at a time, the other 15 actuators on the e-skin can supplement each other and perform the sensing or haptic reproducing function, allowing the e-skin patch to achieve bidirectional touch transmission simultaneously.

This new e-skin has a lot of practical applications, with the research team currently focusing on developing the product for people with visual impairment (Lord help us when the porn studios get a hold of it). Using the e-skin, visually impaired people could wear the device to gain remote directional guidance and read Braille messages.

The research findings were published in the scientific journal Science Advances titled “Touch IoT enabled by wireless self-sensing and haptic-reproducing electronic skin”. This new technology has the potential to revolutionize how we communicate remotely and may have applications in many areas, including health care, entertainment, and education.

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