作者
Jaehwan Kim,Abraham Vázquez‐Guardado,Haiwen Luan,Jin-Tae Kim,Dong Yang,Haohui Zhang,Jan‐Kai Chang,Seonggwang Yoo,Chanho Park,Yuanting Wei,Zach Christiansen,Seung Yeob Kim,Raudel Avila,Jong Uk Kim,Young Joong Lee,Hee‐Sup Shin,Mingyu Zhou,Sung Woo Jeon,Janice Mihyun Baek,Yujin Lee,So Young Kim,Jaeman Lim,Minsu Park,Hyoyoung Jeong,Sang Min Won,Renkun Chen,Yonggang Huang,Yei Hwan Jung,Jae‐Young Yoo,John A. Rogers
摘要
Sensations of heat and touch produced by receptors in the skin are of essential importance for perceptions of the physical environment, with a particularly powerful role in interpersonal interactions. Advances in technologies for replicating these sensations in a programmable manner have the potential not only to enhance virtual/augmented reality environments but they also hold promise in medical applications for individuals with amputations or impaired sensory function. Engineering challenges are in achieving interfaces with precise spatial resolution, power-efficient operation, wide dynamic range, and fast temporal responses in both thermal and in physical modulation, with forms that can extend over large regions of the body. This paper introduces a wireless, skin-compatible interface for thermo-haptic modulation designed to address some of these challenges, with the ability to deliver programmable patterns of enhanced vibrational displacement and high-speed thermal stimulation. Experimental and computational investigations quantify the thermal and mechanical efficiency of a vertically stacked design layout in the thermo-haptic stimulators that also supports real-time, closed-loop control mechanisms. The platform is effective in conveying thermal and physical information through the skin, as demonstrated in the control of robotic prosthetics and in interactions with pressure/temperature-sensitive touch displays.