This is a paper we have been waiting for some time. This is
a paper which embodies comprehension. Bold steps to address the hard challenges
in the world of soft electronics. In this paper, we make the following
advancements:
1.
Demonstration a singular
platform to integrate the maximum number of sensors – the closest someone can
go to the natural skin.
2.
Use of household papers as
the cheapest material someone can think of to make electronics.
3.
If functionality per cost
is the measure, a table has been presented in the paper to capture all previous
demonstrations on artificial/electronic skin and one can see the benefits of
this demonstration.
4.
Seeding of citizen science.
As I stated, my vision is to democratize electronics. Like software, apps, etc.
I would like to see surge of ideas around electronics to give rise of citizen
science. This is the first step toward that.
Paper Skin Multi-Sensory Platform for Simultaneous
Environmental Monitoring
Joanna M. Nassar1,
Marlon D. Cordero1, Arwa T. Kutbee1, Muhammad A. Karimi2,
Galo A. Torres Sevilla1, Aftab M. Hussain1, Atif Shamim2
and Muhammad M. Hussain1*
Human skin and hair can simultaneously feel pressure,
temperature, humidity, strain and flow – great inspirations for applications
like artificial skins for burn and acid victims, robotics, vehicular technology
and such. Previous efforts in this direction used sophisticated materials or
processes. Chemically functionalized, inkjet printed or vacuum technology
processed papers albeit cheap, have shown limited functionalities. Thus
performance and/or functionalities per cost has been limited. Here we show a scalable
“garage” fabrication approach using off-the-shelf inexpensive household
elements such as aluminum foil, scotch tapes, sticky-notes, napkins and sponges
to build “paper skin” with simultaneous real-time sensing capability of
pressure, temperature, humidity, proximity, pH and flow. Enabling the basic
principles of porosity, adsorption, and dimensions of these materials, we
report a fully functioning distributed sensor network platform which for the
first time can sense the vitals of its carrier (body temperature, blood
pressure, heart rate and skin hydration) and the surrounding environment.
Congratulations to Joanna et al. for an important
paper to start the year 2016!