(The Gist of Science Reporter) Electronic Skin — Human-machine Interface [JUNE-2020]

(The Gist of Science Reporter) Electronic Skin — Human-machine Interface

WeI Gao, assistant professor at Caltech’s Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, has developed an electronic skin, or e-skin, which can be applied directly on top of the real skin.
The newly developed e-skin which is made from soft, flexible rubber, can be embedded with sensors. These sensors can monitor information like body temperature, heart rate, levels of blood sugar and metabolic by-products that are indicators of health, and even the nerve signals that control our muscles. It does not require a battery, as it runs solely on biofuel cells powered by one of the body’s own waste products.
According to Gao, “One of the major challenges with these kinds of wearable devices is on the power side. Many people are using batteries, but that’s not very sustainable. Some people have tried using solar cells or harvesting the power of human motion, but we wanted to know, ‘Can we get sufficient energy from sweat to power the wearables?’ and the answer is yes.”