South Korean researchers have developed the world's first next-generation electronic skin technology that can detect movement by spraying liquidto human skin. It is a technology that can be widely used in augmented and virtual reality and telemedicine fields because it can accurately measure human movement without the burden of volume.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT the 29th, Professor Sung-ho Cho of KAIST, Professor Seung Hwan Ko of Seoul National University, and Professor Zhenan Bao of Stanford University have developed a 'next-generation intelligent artificial skin technology' that measures and utilizes movement through artificial intelligence (AI) after printing electronic skin their hands with conductive liquid. The research team's achievements were published in the international journal Nature Electronics.
Electronic skin is a technology that originally implements hard electronic devices in a form that can be stretched flexibly like skin. If electronic skin is attached to human skin, △ human movement can be measured, △ health information such as blood pressure, blood sugar, blood flow, and oxygen saturation can be collected in real time, △ trace amounts of drugs can be injected in a timely manner depending the patient's condition. The electronic skin developed so far has the disadvantage of being bulky or less flexible. However, using next-generation technology, wearable devices, which are mainly in the form of watches or bands, can be simplified by attaching them to the skin.


The next-generation intelligent artificial skin technology developed by Professor Cho's team and others utilized conductive nanomesh, not patch form. It is a method of spraying conductive liquid directlyto the skin and automatically printing a nanometer (nm) conductive net the hand. This artificial skin converts information that increases the skin according to movement into an electrical signal and transmits it to AI through a Bluetooth device.
Then, the AI program learns the transmitted electrical signal by itself and recognizes the user's movement. Professor Sung-ho Cho explained in a telephone interview with the Hankook Ilbo, "The signals generated the back of the hand are subtly different depending the movement of the fingers, and we taught AI algorithms to distinguish them and infer actual actions."
For example, using this technology, you can type actual letters your PC by just touching your finger in the air without a keyboard body. Although there are still limitations in terms of typing speed, it is expected to accurately implement very fast typing if the technology level is raised, such as expanding the range of electronic skin to the entire finger. In addition, the shape of an object can be drawn the screen just by rubbing a specific object. Since movement is recognized withly a small amount of information, it can be implemented general PCs or smartphones.

The research team expected that this technology could be widely used in the field of metaverse and telemedicine. Professor Cho said, "This study is the first case of combining electronic skin and the latest AI technology," adding, "It can bring technological innovation in the fields of augmented, virtual reality, telemedicine, and robotics." This research was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT's basic research project (medium-sized research and leading research center).

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