Stretchable triboelectric multimodal tactile interface simultaneously recognizing various dynamic body motions

Abstract

Human cutaneous tactile receptors are deformable, and can distinguish touch, strain, relative moving distance, and relative moving velocity. In addition, the tactile potential is self-activated when external stimulation is exerted and the potential is transmitted to the nerve system, resembling the wake-up function in electronic devices. In this study, we mimic such characteristics of the human tactile receptors. We designed a stretchable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for the stimuli-responsive potential generator. The TENG device has a multilayer structure independently recognizing lateral strain by the sliding mode, touch by the contact mode, the relative moving distance, and the relative moving velocity. In addition, the device design allows simultaneous sensing of strain and touch without signal interference. The self-triggered potentials generated by various body motions such as touching, joint bending, and the combinations turn on a sleeping microcontroller unit (MCU) and are used as the distinct motion signals. This study demonstrates a wearable low-power remote tactile interface that controls the 3D movements of a mobile device (drone) by the body motions.