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A wireless haptic interface for programmable patterns of touch across large areas of the skin

Nature Electronics volume 5, pages 374–385 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 28 August 2022

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Abstract

Haptic interfaces can be used to add sensations of touch to virtual and augmented reality experiences. Soft, flexible devices that deliver spatiotemporal patterns of touch across the body, potentially with full-body coverage, are of particular interest for a range of applications in medicine, sports and gaming. Here we report a wireless haptic interface of this type, with the ability to display vibro-tactile patterns across large areas of the skin in single units or through a wirelessly coordinated collection of them. The lightweight and flexible designs of these systems incorporate arrays of vibro-haptic actuators at a density of 0.73 actuators per square centimetre, which exceeds the two-point discrimination threshold for mechanical sensation on the skin across nearly all the regions of the body except the hands and face. A range of vibrant sensations and information content can be passed to mechanoreceptors in the skin via time-dependent patterns and amplitudes of actuation controlled through the pressure-sensitive touchscreens of smart devices, in real-time with negligible latency. We show that this technology can be used to convey navigation instructions, to translate musical tracks into tactile patterns and to support sensory replacement feedback for the control of robotic prosthetics.

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Fig. 1: Structural designs, mechanical interfaces to the skin and touchscreen control system.
Fig. 2: Operating principles.
Fig. 3: Mechanics of vibrational coupling to the skin.
Fig. 4: Assembly of haptic interfaces via prefabricated building blocks.
Fig. 5: Delivery of visual and auditory information through spatiotemporal pattern of haptic actuation.
Fig. 6: Sensory replacement with a haptic interface as feedback for control of a robotic hand.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Y.H.J. acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) (no. 2022R1C1C1003994) and the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-202100000000832). We thank the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics for support of this work.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yei Hwan Jung, Jae-Young Yoo, Abraham Vázquez-Guardado, Jae-Hwan Kim, Jin-Tae Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yei Hwan Jung & Jaeman Lim

  2. Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jae-Young Yoo, Abraham Vázquez-Guardado, Jae-Hwan Kim, Jin-Tae Kim, Haiwen Luan, Minsu Park, Jaeman Lim, Hee-Sup Shin, Chun-Ju Su, Robert Schloen, Jacob Trueb, Jan-Kai Chang, Da Som Yang, Yoonseok Park, Hanjun Ryu, Hong-Joon Yoon, Geumbee Lee, Hyoyeong Jeong, Jong Uk Kim & John A. Rogers

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Raudel Avila, Yonggang Huang & John A. Rogers

  4. PSYONIC, Champaign, IL, USA

    Aadeel Akhtar & Jesse Cornman

  5. School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Tae-il Kim

  6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Yonggang Huang & John A. Rogers

  7. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Yonggang Huang

  8. Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Neurological Surgery, Chemistry, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    John A. Rogers

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Contributions

Y.H.J. and J.A.R. conceived the idea, designed the research, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. Y.H.J., J.-Y.Y., A.V.-G., J.-H.K., M.P., J.L. and C.-J.S. designed the device and carried out the fabrication. A.V.-G., R.S. and J.T. designed the operation protocols and GUI. J.-T.K., H.L. and R.A. performed the mechanical characterization and analysis. A.A. and J.C. designed and programmed the prosthetic hand. Y.H.J., J.-Y.Y, A.V.-G., J.-H.K., H.-S.S., C.-J.S., J.-K.C., D.S.Y., Y.P., H.R., H.-J.Y., G.L., H.J., J.U.K., T.-I.K. and Y.H. carried out the experimental validation and analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John A. Rogers.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Electronics thanks Herbert Shea, Xiaoming Tao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–19, Tables 1 and 2 and and Notes 1 and 2.

Supplementary Video 1

Vibration analysis of an ERM actuator with PTV.

Supplementary Video 2

Vibration analysis of an ERM actuator with DIC.

Supplementary Video 3

High-speed video imaging of various actuators.

Supplementary Video 4

Enhanced video imaging of various actuators.

Supplementary Video 5

Spatiotemporal haptic patterns of actuation for various touch interactions.

Supplementary Video 6

Translation of sound into haptic feedback in real time.

Supplementary Video 7

Prosthetic tactile feedback training.

Supplementary Video 8

Grasping an eggshell using a prosthetic hand without haptic feedback.

Supplementary Video 9

Grasping an eggshell using a prosthetic hand with haptic feedback.

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Jung, Y.H., Yoo, JY., Vázquez-Guardado, A. et al. A wireless haptic interface for programmable patterns of touch across large areas of the skin. Nat Electron 5, 374–385 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00765-3

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