Self-powered user-interactive electronic skin for programmable touch operation platform

TLDR

User‑interactive electronic skin can spatially map touch via electric readout and visual output, yet its high power consumption, complex structure, and high cost limit practical use. The study presents a self‑powered, low‑cost user‑interactive electronic skin built on a triboelectric‑optical model. The SUE‑skin converts touch stimuli into electrical signals and visible light at a trigger pressure as low as 20 kPa, and integrates with a microcontroller to enable a programmable touch operation platform. The device operates without external power, recognizes over 156 interaction logics, and shows promise for gesture control, augmented reality, and intelligent prosthesis applications.

Abstract

User-interactive electronic skin is capable of spatially mapping touch via electric readout and providing visual output as a human-readable response. However, the high power consumption, complex structure, and high cost of user-interactive electronic skin are notable obstacles for practical application. Here, we report a self-powered, user-interactive electronic skin (SUE-skin), which is simple in structure and low in cost, based on a proposed triboelectric-optical model. The SUE-skin achieves the conversion of touch stimuli into electrical signal and instantaneous visible light at trigger pressure threshold as low as 20 kPa, without external power supply. By integrating the SUE-skin with a microcontroller, a programmable touch operation platform was built that can recognize more than 156 interaction logics for easy control of consumer electronics. This cost-effective technology has potential relevance to gesture control, augmented reality, and intelligent prosthesis applications.