glasses, watches, wristbands, or belts, are either fully or partially composed of planar and rigid materials, which require the use of obtrusive, hard supports or additional bendable strips to be mounted on the human body. Therefore, clinical devices that use the existing wearables cause discomfort and limit monitoring of human physiological data in the laboratory. This is the big limitation factor to overcome despite the ever-growing market for wearables in broader screenings outside of the clinic. By this account, it is necessary to replace the bulky and rigid plastics and metal components in the sensors and electronics with skin-like materials for enhanced wearability and functionality.The concept of WFHE poses a possible solution to address the aforementioned difficulties by providing user comfort, compliant mechanics, soft integration, multifunctionality, and smart diagnostics with embedded machine learning algorithms. Specifically, such electronics would provide stable and intimate contact to the soft human skin without adding any mechanical and thermal loadings or causing skin breakdown. Current development strategies and approaches for advanced WFHE focus on soft, flexible form factors, nonirritating and nontoxic characteristics, fully autonomous energy components, seamless wireless communications, Recent advances in soft materials and system integration technologies have provided a unique opportunity to design various types of wearable flexible hybrid electronics (WFHE) for advanced human healthcare and humanmachine interfaces. The hybrid integration of soft and biocompatible materials with miniaturized wireless wearable systems is undoubtedly an attractiveprospect in the sense that the successful device performance requires high degrees of mechanical flexibility, sensing capability, and user-friendly simplicity. Here, the most up-to-date materials, sensors, and system-packaging technologies to develop advanced WFHE are provided. Details of mechanical, electrical, physicochemical, and biocompatible properties are discussed with integrated sensor applications in healthcare, energy, and environment. In addition, limitations of the current materials are discussed, as well as key challenges and the future direction of WFHE. Collectively, an all-inclusive review of the newly developed WFHE along with a summary of imperative requirements of material properties, sensor capabilities, electronics performance, and skin integrations is provided. Wearable Flexible Hybrid ElectronicsThe ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.
Recent advances in nanomaterials and nano-microfabrication have enabled the development of flexible wearable electronics. However, existing manufacturing methods still rely on a multi-step, error-prone complex process that requires a costly cleanroom facility. Here, we report a new class of additive nanomanufacturing of functional materials that enables a wireless, multilayered, seamlessly interconnected, and flexible hybrid electronic system. All-printed electronics, incorporating machine learning, offers multi-class and versatile human-machine interfaces. One of the key technological advancements is the use of a functionalized conductive graphene with enhanced biocompatibility, anti-oxidation, and solderability, which allows a wireless flexible circuit. The high-aspect ratio graphene offers gel-free, high-fidelity recording of muscle activities. The performance of the printed electronics is demonstrated by using real-time control of external systems via electromyograms. Anatomical study with deep learning-embedded electrophysiology mapping allows for an optimal selection of three channels to capture all finger motions with an accuracy of about 99% for seven classes.
The molecular structures and the intramolecular hydrogen bonding for 1,2-dihydroxybenzene and 2-hydroxythiophenol have been precisely investigated by an ab initio method and density functional theory (DFT). We have considered the several possible conformations with different types of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in given molecules to understand the nature of the hydrogen bonding among these conformers. The optimized geometrical parameters for conformer 1a at the B3LYP levels as well as the computed 1H NMR chemical shifts for conformer 2b at the RHF/6-31+G*//B3LYP/6-31+G* level are in good agreement with previous experimental results. It is confirmed from these results that the inclusion of electron correlation is crucial to elucidate molecular properties for the intramolecular hydrogen bonding systems. We have also compared the molecular energies between two different conformations both with a hydrogen bond and with no hydrogen bond of a given molecule. In 1,2-dihydroxybenzene, the energy stabilized by hydrogen bonding is about 4 kcal/mol at both ab initio and DFT methods. However, the hydrogen bonding energies are different according to types of hydrogen bonding in 2-hydroxythiophenol: about 1 kcal/mol for conformer 2a with the common type hydrogen bonding and 4 kcal/mol for conformer 2b with the π type hydrogen bonding.
Recent advances in flexible materials and wearable electronics offer a noninvasive, high-fidelity recording of biopotentials for portable healthcare, disease diagnosis, and machine interfaces. Current device-manufacturing methods, however, still heavily rely on the conventional cleanroom microfabrication that requires expensive, time-consuming, and complicated processes. Here, we introduce an additive nanomanufacturing technology that explores a contactless direct printing of aerosol nanomaterials and polymers to fabricate stretchable sensors and multilayered wearable electronics. Computational and experimental studies prove the mechanical flexibility and reliability of soft electronics, considering direct mounting to the deformable human skin with a curvilinear surface. The dry, skin-conformal graphene biosensor, without the use of conductive gels and aggressive tapes, offers an enhanced biopotential recording on the skin and multiple uses (over ten times) with consistent measurement of electromyograms. The combination of soft bioelectronics and deep learning algorithm allows classifying six classes of muscle activities with an accuracy of over 97%, which enables wireless, real-time, continuous control of external machines such as a robotic hand and a robotic arm. Collectively, the comprehensive study of nanomaterials, flexible mechanics, system integration, and machine learning shows the potential of the printed bioelectronics for portable, smart, and persistent human–machine interfaces.
The advancement in virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) has been achieved by breakthroughs in the realistic perception of virtual elements. Although VR/AR technology is advancing fast, enhanced sensor functions, long‐term wearability, and seamless integration with other electronic components are still required for more natural interactions with the virtual world. Here, this report reviews the recent advances in multifunctional wearable sensors and integrated functional devices for VR/AR applications. Specified device designs, packaging strategies, and interactive physiological sensors are summarized based on their methodological approaches for sensory inputs and virtual feedback. In addition, limitations of the existing systems, key challenges, and future directions are discussed. It is envisioned that this progress report's outcomes will expand the insights on wearable functional sensors and device interfaces toward next‐generation VR/AR technologies.
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