A bimodal soft electronic skin for tactile and touchless interaction in real time

TLDR

The emergence of smart electronics, human‑friendly robotics, and augmented or virtual reality demands electronic skins capable of both tactile and touchless perception for manipulating real and virtual objects. The study realizes bifunctional electronic skins that can sense both tactile pressure and touchless magnetic field stimuli. This is achieved using a compliant magnetic microelectromechanical system that transduces the two modalities into separate electrical signals. The system separates signals from tactile and touchless interactions into distinct regions, enabling real‑time discrimination, resisting interference from irrelevant objects, and supporting programmable interactions for complex interplay with physical objects and virtual content in augmented reality, robotics, and medical applications.

Abstract

The emergence of smart electronics, human friendly robotics and supplemented or virtual reality demands electronic skins with both tactile and touchless perceptions for the manipulation of real and virtual objects. Here, we realize bifunctional electronic skins equipped with a compliant magnetic microelectromechanical system able to transduce both tactile-via mechanical pressure-and touchless-via magnetic fields-stimulations simultaneously. The magnetic microelectromechanical system separates electric signals from tactile and touchless interactions into two different regions, allowing the electronic skins to unambiguously distinguish the two modes in real time. Besides, its inherent magnetic specificity overcomes the interference from non-relevant objects and enables signal-programmable interactions. Ultimately, the magnetic microelectromechanical system enables complex interplay with physical objects enhanced with virtual content data in augmented reality, robotics, and medical applications.