12. Skin Electronics¶
Research¶
What are skin electronics?
Artistic Applications¶
There are lots of artistic applications of skin electronics, that also have functionality.
First¶
Skin Bling: Wearable Electronics From Golden Temporary Tattoos accessed here on Hackaday. This one is made from a temporary tattoo film and backer cut on a standard desktop vinyl cutter, then gold leaf is applied to the entire film surface. According to the website, "The gold leaf tattoos make excellent capacitive touch sensors. The team was able to create sliders, buttons, and even 2 dimensional diamond grids. These controls were used to move a cursor on a computer or phone screen. They were even able to create a wearable NFC tag. The gold leaf is the antenna, and the NFC chip itself is mounted on the temporary tattoo backer."
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Second¶
Bio-circuit 4 fibre optic hand piece in white, on Etsy, found here: "The Bio-circuit 4 hand piece is an organic, dynamic, and futuristic design with 4 points illuminated with fibre optics powered by an LED in the hub. Looks great with the Bio-circuit 4 neck piece." More information is found here. Had system is linked here
Nanotron fibre optic head system in white found here
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Medical Applications¶
An article from the website Ingenious Brain, linked here, discusses specific medical applications of skin electronics: "Electronic skin, also called e-skin, is a soft and stretchy electronic material that can be worn on the human body like a second skin. It is designed to mimic the properties of human skin and can be used to monitor various physiological and environmental parameters such as body temperature, blood pressure, and humidity. Electronic skins are typically made from a combination of flexible and stretchable materials such as polymers & elastomers and are integrated with sensors and electronic components that can detect & transmit signals wirelessly."
Here is an image from the website about a variety of applications.
My Skin Elecronics Project¶
My Initital goal was to make finger coverings, and have either the hands light-up when fingers touched OR have a heart medallion over the heart light-up when two ring figers touched. Here are my sketches for that idea:
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Final Idea¶
I moved to a new idea, to make a finger-based neuro-rehabilitation tool for patients recovering from stroke and other neuro-muscular disorders. The concept was simple - utilize the varying resistance of velostat to estimate if a patient is able to sufficiently press two digits of their hand. An analog signal generated using the velostat (using a voltage divider circuit) was fed into the analog input pin of the Arduino. Following this, the ADC values were observed, and a threshold was defined for demonstration purposes. If the velostat material was pressed sufficiently, the ring and wrist would light up to provide the patient feedback of successful gripping.
To create the arm device, I soldered wires to four LEDS to place them onto the ring finger and up the arm. I sewed elastic to the LEDS and wrapped the thread around the wire.
The wire: enamel-coated copper wire typically used for winding coils used in fans. This was a thin and supple wire useful for wearables applications.
Velostat¶
{ width=300 align=right }
Velostat,often used in pressure sensors and touch-sensitive applications, works as a resistor because:
1) It is a conductive polymer that changes resistance based on applied pressure. 2) It exhibits piezoresistive properties, meaning its resistance decreases when compressed. 3) The material consists of carbon-filled polymer, which allows for electrical conductivity. 4) When pressure is applied, the carbon particles come closer together, enhancing conductivity.
The set-up of the Arduino, elastic LED arm bands, alligator clips, and velostat resistor:
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Video¶
Alumni Pages¶
Check out and research alumni pages to better understand how to document and get inspired
* Skin Circuit - [Grecia Bello - Fab Lab BCN](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/grecia-segovia/assignments/week12/)
* Interactive glove - [Asli Aksan - Textile Lab Amsterdam](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/asli-aksan/assignments/week12/)
* Face Mask - [Riley Cox - Textile Lab Amsterdam](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/riley-cox/assignments/week12/)
* Skin electronics research - [Julija Karas - Fab Lab BCN](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/julija-karas/assignments/week12/)
Project Code¶
https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/basics/AnalogReadSerial/
https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/basics/AnalogReadSerial/
*/
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
// initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
// read the input on analog pin 0:
int sensorValue = analogRead(A0);
if (sensorValue < 520){
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
}
else{
digitalWrite(8, LOW);
}
// print out the value you read:
Serial.println(sensorValue);
delay(100); // delay in between reads for stability
}