Inspired by how elasmobranch fishes locate their prey in a noncontact manner, we developed a SAER that emulate the ability to sense electric fields. As in the animal’s electroreceptors, ion conductive hydrogels were used as soft electric field receivers. For rapid and elaborate fabrication, network of hydrogel electric field receivers was 3D printed on an elastomer. By covalently anchoring the hydrogels to the elastomer during the printing process, a robust hydrogel/elastomer interface capable of withstanding the mechanical deformation caused by human movement was formed. In the same manner as the electroreceptors of the elasmobranch fishes, the fabricated SAER could detect the relative position of nearby objects in a noncontact manner by comparing the intensity of the object-originated electric fields sensed by each hydrogel receiver in the network. Because electric fields can be transmitted through dielectric materials, the SAER could be used to detect objects even if they were behind a dielectric wall. Moreover, the sensing capability of the SAER was boosted more than 130-fold on the basis of the theoretical analysis. By wearing the SAER, a person can receive spatial information of a nearby object in real time via auditory signals. The artificial electroreceptor expands the way in which humans can perceive space by providing a new sensory modality that did not evolve naturally in human beings.


                                                                                        [Prof. Jeong-yun Sun & Prof. Ho-young Kim]

More Information : Soft artificial electroreceptors for noncontact spatial perception | Science Advances