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12. Skin Electronics

⡏Research⠉⢹⚡︎

Skin electronics is the field of electronics that creates soft, flexible, and stretchable devices designed to be worn directly on the skin. These devices can stretch and bend with the body, making them comfortable and almost unnoticeable for the user. Skin electronics often integrate sensors, conductive materials, and soft substrates such as silicone, polymers, or textiles. They are commonly used in healthcare, human computer interaction, wearable technology, and soft robotics, where close contact with the body allows for more natural and responsive interaction.

There are many interesting projects such as Skinergy. Skinergy is a research project developed by the Hybrid Body Lab at Cornell University. It explores the creation of soft, skin like sensors that can be worn directly on the body. The system uses the triboelectric effect (sensor converts mechanical energy from the input interaction into electrical energy), so it generates electrical signals from physical contact and movement, allowing the sensor to work without an external power source for it to work. Skinergy is made from a textile silicone composite with embroidered conductive threads, making it flexible, lightweight, and comfortable to wear.

Possible applications:

from Skinergy Project, Hybrid Body Lab, Cornell University (2023).

More details of the project here.

⚡︎ References & Inspiration ⚡︎

Piano mats work by using pressure-sensitive areas that act like large flexible buttons. When a key is pressed, an electrical circuit is closed and a signal is sent to a controller, which plays the corresponding musical note. This allows body movement to be translated into sound.

Click N'play musical piano mat for children

Invisible Piano is a wearable musical interface designed by my talented classmate Dani Maldonado, the user plays piano like notes using touches on their hand instead of a traditional keyboard. The idea was to map each finger and palm contact to a musical note, so the notes are “invisible”.

by Dani Maldonado, fabricademy, 2025

In this project Isobel, a microcontroller (XIAO ESP32C3) is used to control sounds in GarageBand through Bluetooth MIDI. Sensors such as a button and a potentiometer send input signals to the microcontroller, which converts them into MIDI messages. These messages are transmitted wirelessly to a phone running GarageBand, where they trigger or modify sounds in a synthesizer.

by Isobel Jo Leonard, fabricademy, 2024

Melody button |𓏪̣̣𓐇݁𓈒ֺּໃ 𝄞

Tools

Process and workflow

Since I didn’t have many sensors available at the time, I decided to be creative with what I already had, so I came up with the idea of using my LilyPad buzzer and the LilyPad button. The idea was that each time the button was pressed, a note would be played. I wanted to use one of the first melodies I learned to play on the piano.

My piano it´s a little bit out of tune, but you get the idea.

I designed my circuit:

Promt on chat gpt to get the code:

Write Arduino code for a XIAO RP2040 using a LilyPad passive buzzer and a LilyPad button.
The buzzer must be connected to pin D1 and the button to pin D2.
Each time the button is pressed, the buzzer should play the next note in a predefined melody sequence.
The melody must be:
G, E, C, E, G, E, C, E, G, F, D, D, E, C, G, E, C, E, G, E, C, E, G, F, D, D, C, C, E, C.
Use tone() to generate sound and INPUT_PULLUP for the button.
Add button debouncing and make the melody loop back to the beginning after the last note.

This is the code it gave me:

/*
  XIAO RP2040 + Botón LilyPad + Buzzer LilyPad (pasivo)
  Cada pulsación toca la siguiente nota de la melodía
*/

// ---- PINES ----
const int PIN_BUZZER = D1;  // buzzer en D1
const int PIN_BOTON  = D2;  // botón en D2

// ---- NOTAS (octava 4) ----
const int DO4  = 262;
const int RE4  = 294;
const int MI4  = 330;
const int FA4  = 349;
const int SOL4 = 392;

// ---- MELODÍA COMPLETA ----
const int melodia[] = {
  // Estrofa original
  SOL4, MI4, DO4, MI4,
  SOL4, MI4, DO4, MI4,
  SOL4, FA4, RE4, RE4,
  MI4, DO4,

  // Nueva estrofa añadida
  SOL4, MI4, DO4, MI4,
  SOL4, MI4, DO4, MI4,
  SOL4, FA4, RE4, RE4,
  DO4, DO4, MI4, DO4
};

const int N = sizeof(melodia) / sizeof(melodia[0]);

// ---- VARIABLES ----
int indice = 0;

// antirrebote
int botonEstable = HIGH;
int botonPrevio  = HIGH;
unsigned long tCambio = 0;
const unsigned long debounceMs = 35;

// ---- SETUP ----
void setup() {
  pinMode(PIN_BOTON, INPUT_PULLUP); // botón a GND
  pinMode(PIN_BUZZER, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(PIN_BUZZER, LOW);
}

// ---- FUNCIÓN PARA TOCAR NOTA ----
void tocarNota(int frecuencia, int durMs = 180) {
  tone(PIN_BUZZER, frecuencia, durMs);
  delay(durMs);
  noTone(PIN_BUZZER);
  delay(40);
}

// ---- LOOP ----
void loop() {
  int lectura = digitalRead(PIN_BOTON);

  if (lectura != botonPrevio) {
    tCambio = millis();
    botonPrevio = lectura;
  }

  if ((millis() - tCambio) > debounceMs) {
    if (lectura != botonEstable) {
      botonEstable = lectura;

      if (botonEstable == LOW) {
        tocarNota(melodia[indice]);
        indice++;

        if (indice >= N) {
          indice = 0;
        }

        while (digitalRead(PIN_BOTON) == LOW) {
          delay(5);
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

I uploaded it on arduino and then onto my microcontroller. You can see further details on how to use arduino on my e-textiles week.

And tested it, as a conductive material for the test i used copper wire.

After testing it, I was able to start assembling my circuit on my skin. As a conductive material, I used copper tape because of its flexibility and also because it sticks easily to the skin. To ensure strong conductivity between the pins and the components I used (the buzzer and the button), I passed a piece of copper wire through them and soldered it onto a piece of copper tape. Something like this:

Tip: I used isopropyl alcohol to clean my skin and remove any skin oils so that the circuit would stick properly and not peel off. If you have sensitive skin or any condition, you can skip this step or wash the area with neutral soap instead.

Final result

Fabricademy by Samantha Sánchez, 2026

Conclusion

Working on this Week 12 skin electronics project reminded me how much experimentation and improvisation go into wearable tech. With limited sensors, I creatively used what I had and translated simple physical interaction into sound triggered by touch on my skin. As I built the circuit directly on my body using flexible materials like copper tape, I learned firsthand how material choice affects comfort and reliability. This experience made me think about how human bodies and electronics can interact in playful, personal ways.