An ultrathin conformable vibration-responsive electronic skin for quantitative vocal recognition

TLDR

Flexible, skin‑attachable vibration sensors have been explored for wearable voice‑recognition, yet achieving a flat frequency response, high sensitivity, and conformable form factor remains a major challenge. The authors introduce an ultrathin, conformable electronic skin that measures skin acceleration linearly correlated with voice pressure. The device uses a cross‑linked ultrathin polymer film with a hole‑patterned diaphragm, delivering 5.5 V Pa⁻¹ sensitivity across the voice frequency range and <5 µm thickness for superior skin conformity that removes vibrational distortion on rough or curved surfaces. The sensor enables accurate voice recognition and is applicable to security authentication, remote control, and vocal healthcare.

Abstract

Flexible and skin-attachable vibration sensors have been studied for use as wearable voice-recognition electronics. However, the development of vibration sensors to recognize the human voice accurately with a flat frequency response, a high sensitivity, and a flexible/conformable form factor has proved a major challenge. Here, we present an ultrathin, conformable, and vibration-responsive electronic skin that detects skin acceleration, which is highly and linearly correlated with voice pressure. This device consists of a crosslinked ultrathin polymer film and a hole-patterned diaphragm structure, and senses voices quantitatively with an outstanding sensitivity of 5.5 V Pa-1 over the voice frequency range. Moreover, this ultrathin device (<5 μm) exhibits superior skin conformity, which enables exact voice recognition because it eliminates vibrational distortion on rough and curved skin surfaces. Our device is suitable for several promising voice-recognition applications, such as security authentication, remote control systems and vocal healthcare.