WeTac: A small, soft and ultrathin wireless electrotactile system - Tech Xplore

Virtual world (VR) and augmented world (AR) headsets are becoming progressively advanced, enabling progressively engaging and immersive integer experiences. To marque VR and AR experiences adjacent much realistic, engineers person been trying to make amended systems that nutrient tactile and haptic feedback matching virtual content.

Researchers astatine University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) and different institutes successful China person precocious created WeTac, a miniaturized, brushed and ultrathin wireless electrotactile strategy that produces tactile sensations connected a user's skin. This system, introduced successful Nature Machine Intelligence, works by delivering electrical current done a user's hand.

"As the tactile sensitivity among different individuals and antithetic parts of the manus wrong a idiosyncratic varies widely, a cosmopolitan method to encode tactile accusation into faithful feedback successful hands according to sensitivity features is urgently needed," Kuanming Yao and his colleagues wrote successful their paper. "In addition, existing haptic interfaces worn connected the manus are usually bulky, rigid and tethered by cables, which is simply a hurdle for accurately and people providing haptic feedback."

WeTac consists of a bid of electrodes, which are placed implicit a user's palm, and miniaturized brushed physics components that enactment arsenic the device's power panel. When worn by users, the instrumentality tin nutrient elaborate and programmable spatio-temporal haptic feedback patterns, with 32 electrotactile simulation pixels connected the broadside of the thenar and precocious spatial solution of 0.279 pixels per cm² in the densest region.

"WeTac delivers existent done the manus to induce tactile sensations arsenic the skin-integrated haptic interface," the researchers wrote successful their paper. "With a comparatively precocious pixel density implicit the full manus area, the WeTac tin supply tactile stimulation and measurement the sensation thresholds of users successful a flexible way."

The instrumentality make by Yao and his colleagues has notable advantages implicit different electrotactile devices developed successful the past. Most notably, it covers a wider aboveground of a user's manus (i.e., the full hand), alternatively than focusing connected 1 oregon much fingertips.

In addition, arsenic its constituent are ultrasoft, WeTac tin easy representation threshold currents for idiosyncratic users, identifying optimal parameters for producing haptic feedback successful circumstantial parts of the hand. This could pb to full-hand, realistic, and personalized tactile experiences that tin beryllium intelligibly felt by users, without causing them pain.

"By mapping the thresholds for antithetic electrical parameters, personalized threshold information tin beryllium acquired to reproduce virtual touching sensations connected the manus with optimized stimulation strength and debar causing pain," the researchers explained successful their paper. "With an close power of sensation level, temporal and spatial perception, it allows providing personalized feedback erstwhile users interact with virtual objects."

In archetypal tests, the wireless electrotactile instrumentality created by the researchers achieved precise promising results, producing vivid and adjustable haptic feedback connected users' hands. In the future, it could beryllium integrated with VR and AR systems, to make much vivid and engaging virtual experiences oregon to heighten human-machine interactions.

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