Development of Light-Transmitting 'Flexible Sensor'... Wearable Applications

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A domestic research team has developed a sensor that can measure various joint bending movements and facial expressions of the human body about 10 times more stably than before. It is expected to be used in wearable devices such as healthcare monitoring systems.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 2nd that a research team led by Professor Inkyu Park of the Department of Mechanical Engineering developed a wearable flexible tensile sensor using a carbon nanotube-elastic polymer composite material with an optical transmission method.

The research team developed a flexible tensile sensor capable of stably measuring a wide range of tensile rates up to 400%. This sensor forms gaps in the carbon nanotube film impregnated in the elastic polymer according to external tension, greatly changing the optical transmittance. As a result, it has 10 times higher sensitivity compared to existing sensors. It also maintains stable sensing performance under various environmental factors such as more than 13,000 tensile deformations, temperature, and humidity.

The research team measured finger bending movements with this sensor and utilized it for robot control, and successfully observed fine movements such as pulse monitoring near the carotid artery and muscle movements around the mouth during pronunciation.

Professor Inkyu Park said, "In this study, we developed a new platform that can overcome the limitations of existing flexible tensile sensors based on electrical resistance, capacitance, and optical methods," adding, "We realized a high-performance wearable sensor that can be widely used in various fields such as healthcare, entertainment, and robotics."

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