Electronic Skin Is a Viable Alternative to Wearable Devices
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing a stretchable, fully-recyclable circuit board that sticks onto human skin.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a wearable electronic device they state is a cheap, viable alternative to wearable devices. According to the team, the e-skin can be recycled and heal itself if it becomes damaged, much like real skin. What's more, it can also provide a wide range of sensory tasks, including calculating daily step counts and measuring body temperature, making it an excellent platform for medical applications.
The researchers designed the e-skin using a screen-printing technique to create a network of liquid-metal wires, which are then sandwiched between a pair of thin films created from polyimine — the stretchable, self-healing material mentioned earlier. The material is a little thicker than a Band-Aid, but it can conform to the skin's natural shape. Applying the e-skin is applied using heat and can stretch in any direction by 60% without any damage to the electronics.
As noted, the e-skin is capable of healing; for example, if users slice the material, they have to pinch the area together. After a few minutes, the bonds will hold together and begin to heal and reform, and after 13-minutes, the slice will be almost unidentifiable. The team added that the e-skin is made to remain out of landfills, as the material can be immersed in a recycling solution that depolymerizes and separates the e-skin into its component molecules while the electronics components sink to the bottom of the container.
As it stands, the e-skin is far from competing with the real thing, and they still require an external power source to function. That said, the researchers state their artificial skin could become the fashion fad of the future.