The rapid progress of electronics and computer science in the last years has brought humans and machines closer than ever before. A crucial component to enable these interactions is the field of flexible electronics, which aims to establish a seamless link between living and artificial entities using electronic skins (e-skins). E-skins combine the functionality of commercial electronics with the soft, stretchable and biocompatible characteristics of human skin or tissue. Until lately, the focus has been to replicate the standard functions associated with humans, such as, temperature, pressure and chemical detection. Yet, recent developments have also introduced non-standard sensing capabilities like magnetic field detection to create the field of magnetosensitive e-skins. The addition of a supplementary information channel—an electronic sixth sense—has sparked a wide range of applications in the fields of cognitive psychology and human-machine interactions. In this work, we expand the concept of magnetosensitive e-skins to include the notion of directionality and utilize the full interaction potential of the magnetic field vector. Three main results are attained in the course of this work: (i) we demonstrate the use of magnetosensitive e-skins for human-machine interfaces based on permanent magnet sources in the range of 5 mT. (ii) We realize the first magnetosensitive e-skins which are driven by the earth’s magnetic field (50 μT), and showcase their use for orientation and virtual reality game engines. (iii) We fabricate magnetosensitive e-skins to detect magnetic fields below 1 μT. The magnetosensitive e-skins in this work open up exciting possibilities for sensory substitution experiments and sensory processing disorder therapies. Futhermore, for human-machine interactions, they provide a new interactive platform for touchless and gestural control in virtual and augmented reality scenarios beyond the limitations of optics-based systems.
The rapid progress of electronics and computer science in the last years has brought humans and machines closer than ever before. A crucial component to enable these interactions is the field of flexible electronics, which aims to establish a seamless link between living and artificial entities using electronic skins (e-skins). E-skins combine the functionality of commercial electronics with the soft, stretchable and biocompatible characteristics of human skin or tissue. Until lately, the focus has been to replicate the standard functions associated with humans, such as, temperature, pressure and chemical detection. Yet, recent developments have also introduced non-standard sensing capabilities like magnetic field detection to create the field of magnetosensitive e-skins. The addition of a supplementary information channel—an electronic sixth sense—has sparked a wide range of applications in the fields of cognitive psychology and human-machine interactions. In this work, we expand the concept of magnetosensitive e-skins to include the notion of directionality and utilize the full interaction potential of the magnetic field vector. Three main results are attained in the course of this work: (i) we demonstrate the use of magnetosensitive e-skins for human-machine interfaces based on permanent magnet sources in the range of 5 mT. (ii) We realize the first magnetosensitive e-skins which are driven by the earth’s magnetic field (50 μT), and showcase their use for orientation and virtual reality game engines. (iii) We fabricate magnetosensitive e-skins to detect magnetic fields below 1 μT. The magnetosensitive e-skins in this work open up exciting possibilities for sensory substitution experiments and sensory processing disorder therapies. Futhermore, for human-machine interactions, they provide a new interactive platform for touchless and gestural control in virtual and augmented reality scenarios beyond the limitations of optics-based systems.
