Self-powered Sensing for Human-Machine Interface

Abstract

In this chapter, we discussed the first type of pressure/touch sensor based on TENG. In general, the pressure response contains a high sensitivity region at relatively low pressure, and a low sensitivity region at higher pressure. Possible explanations of this behavior include full closing of air gap or saturation of increasing contact area between the touch object and the device. It has been demonstrated that the open-circuit voltage could be employed for static pressure detection to obtain the amplitude of the applied pressure, while the short-circuit current mainly reveals the dynamic information of the applied pressure like loading rate or acceleration. To achieve the goal of self-powered tactile imaging, multiple triboelectric active sensor units were integrated into a matrix with a common aluminum electrode at the bottom. The TENG sensors have been further incorporated in a keyboard structure for self-powered human-machine interface. The polymer-coated smart keyboard has the function of recognize personal typing patterns to achieve security authentication of personal electronics. This new concept of human-machine interface has numerous potential applications in next-generation smart electronics and wearable devices.