| Date | 3rd, May 2023 |
|---|
A touch-responsive fabric armband for flexible keyboards, wearable sketchpads by Staff Writers Washington DC (SPX) May 03, 2023
It's time to roll up your sleeves for the next advance in wearable technology - a fabric armband that's actually a touch pad. In ACS Nano, researchers say they have devised a way to make playing video games, sketching cartoons and signing documents easier. Their proof-of-concept silk armband turns a person's forearm into a keyboard or sketchpad. The three-layer, touch-responsive material interprets what a user draws or types and converts it into images on a computer.
Computer trackpads and electronic signature-capture devices seem to be everywhere, but they aren't as widely used in wearables. Researchers have suggested making flexible touch-responsive panels from clear, electrically conductive hydrogels, but these substances are sticky, making them hard to write on and irritating to the skin. So, Xueji Zhang, Lijun Qu, Mingwei Tian and colleagues wanted to incorporate a similar hydrogel into a comfortable fabric sleeve for drawing or playing games on a computer.
The researchers sandwiched a pressure-sensitive hydrogel between layers of knit silk. The top piece was coated in graphene nanosheets to make the fabric electrically conductive. Attaching the sensing panel to electrodes and a data collection system produced a pressure-responsive pad with real-time, rapid sensing when a finger slid over it, writing numbers and letters. The device was then incorporated into an arm-length silk sleeve with a touch-responsive area on the forearm. In experiments, a user controlled the direction of blocks in a computer game and sketched colorful cartoons in a computer drawing program from the armband. The researchers say that their proof-of-concept wearable touch panel could inspire the next generation of flexible keyboards and wearable sketchpads.
Research Report:Skin-Friendly and Wearable Iontronic Touch Panel for Virtual-Real Handwriting Interaction
Related Links American Chemical Society Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and ManufactureNano Technology News From SpaceMart.com
ADVERTISEMENT
Europe must boost chip production amid Asia risks: EU chief
Dresden, Germany (AFP) May 2, 2023
Europe must boost mass production of vital semiconductors due to worsening geopolitical risks in Asian chip-making centres, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday.
She made the comments at the ground-breaking of a five-billion-euro ($5.5 billion) chip factory in Dresden, among a series of new semiconductor projects in Germany.
The EU is racing to reduce reliance on semiconductors produced in Asia, and last month struck an agreement aiming to double the bloc's global mark ... read more
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2023 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.
