Chen Mingxun, Xu Lulu, Liu Yulong, Yu Mengxia, Li Yi, Ye Terry Tao
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Jun 1;14(21):24946-24954. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c04246. Epub 2022 May 20.
Keypads constructed from fabric materials are the ideal input devices for smart clothing applications. However, multi-modal reaction problems have to be addressed before they can be of practical use on apparels, i.e., the fabric-based keypads need to distinguish between the legitimate actions by the fingertips and the illegitimate deformations and stresses caused by human movements. In this paper, we propose to use the humidity sensor functionalized from graphene oxide (GO)-coated polyester fibers to construct the e-textile keypads. As the moisture level in the proximity of human fingertips is much higher (over 70%) than other parts of the human body, humidity sensing has many advantages over other tactility mechanisms. Experiments have demonstrated that the GO-functionalized fabric keypad has a stable uni-modal tactility only to fingertip touches, and it is not sensitive to deformation, pressure, temperature variation, and other ambient interferences. With biasing and sensing circuits, the keypad exhibits a quick response and recovery time (around 0.1 s), comparable to mechanical keyboards. To demonstrate its application on smart clothing, the keypad was sewn on a sweater and embroidered conductive yarns were used to control an MP3 player in the pocket.
由织物材料制成的键盘是智能服装应用的理想输入设备。然而，在它们能够在服装上实际使用之前，必须解决多模态反应问题，即基于织物的键盘需要区分指尖的合法操作与人类运动引起的非法变形和应力。在本文中，我们提议使用由氧化石墨烯（GO）涂覆的聚酯纤维功能化的湿度传感器来构建电子纺织键盘。由于人类指尖附近的湿度水平（超过70%）远高于人体其他部位，湿度传感相对于其他触觉机制具有许多优势。实验表明，GO功能化织物键盘仅对指尖触摸具有稳定的单模态触觉，并且对变形、压力、温度变化和其他环境干扰不敏感。通过偏置和传感电路，该键盘表现出快速的响应和恢复时间（约0.1秒），与机械键盘相当。为了展示其在智能服装上的应用，将该键盘缝在一件毛衣上，并使用绣花导电纱线控制口袋中的MP3播放器。
