Revolutionary Wearable Technology
Introduction to a New Era of AR/VR
Today’s augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies simulate a vivid interactive experience by altering the scene users see and the sounds they hear. But what if users could also feel their way through an experience? A brand new flexible, wearable device developed by Berkeley Engineering researchers could someday make this a reality.
The Technology Behind the Device
The device is a piezoelectret-based sensor and actuator that vibrates as feedback, just like the best way a smartphone vibrates when a user opens an app or makes a payment. Because this device may be very flexible, it could eventually be utilized in clothes and other wearable technologies. A paper describing this work was published in ACS Nano.
Applications of the Technology
“There are many applications for this technology that may sense motion and provides haptic feedback,” said Liwei Lin, mechanical engineering professor, co-director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC) and certainly one of the lead authors on the paper. “One application is AR/VR. Right now, in the event you are playing a game and hitting a wall, you simply hear a sound. With our device, the sensor can detect in the event you are going to hit something, and the actuator can vibrate to simulate a physical impact.”
Helping People with Impairments
Because the vibrations generated by the actuator could be customized, Lin notes that this technology could also help individuals with visual or hearing impairments communicate with the world around them via vibrations.
The Device’s Structure and Functionality
“Our device is about 150 micrometers thick, just like the diameter of human hair. Its flexibility and its ability to attain each sensor and actuator functions is predicated on an revolutionary sandwich structure that harnesses piezoelectricity,” said Juwen Zhong, a postdoctoral researcher at BSAC and the opposite lead creator on the paper. The outside layers of this sandwich structure consist of fluorinated ethylene propylene elect movies. The middle layer is an Ecoflex spacer, coated with gold aluminum electrodes on top and aluminum electrodes on the underside.
Technical Specifications
Under mechanical deformation brought on by human movements, the sensor function of this device can generate electrical outputs and not using a power supply. These electrical outputs can then help activate the actuator via electrostatic force to generate vibrations that could be felt by human skin. Currently, the device’s actuating mode can generate as much as 20 meganewtons, comparable to the vibrations of a cellphone, and may sense objects as light as a dandelion seed.
Future Developments
According to Zhong, this device outperforms popular piezoelectric materials. The technology showed a high piezoelectric coefficient and low driving voltage, which is vital to reinforce the sensor’s sensitivity and the quantity of electricity needed to power the actuator. In future work, the researchers would love to make a patch prototype with more of those piezoelectric pixels. Their current prototype only has nine pixels; adding more would allow them to generate vibrations that mimic different textures.
Conclusion
The potential applications of this technology are vast and will revolutionize the best way we experience AR/VR and interact with the world around us. As Zhong said, “In the longer term, this sensor-actuator patch could potentially be made in the shape of gloves and suits that provide touch feeling for immersion virtual experiences.” This could enable latest ways of communication and interaction, comparable to distant hugging, and will potentially improve the lives of individuals with visual or hearing impairments. With further development, this technology could turn out to be an integral a part of our each day lives, changing the best way we experience and interact with the world.
