5 things you didn’t know about...a flexible sensor
Credit: University of British Columbia
1. Made of layers of inexpensive silicon and a highly conductive gel, the sensor can be folded and bent while retaining its ability to detect touch.
2. Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, developed the flexible sensor, with funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
3. The prototype measures just 5 x 5cm, but the sensor can be scaled up. Mirza Saquib Sarwar, PhD student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), claims, ‘It’s entirely possible to make a room-sized version of this sensor for just dollars per square metre, and then put sensors on the wall, on the floor, or over the surface of the body – almost anything that requires a transparent, stretchable touch screen.’
4. Saquib Sarwar also pointed out that because it’s cheap to manufacture it could be incorporated in disposable wearables like health monitors.
5. The sensor could also be used in robotic skins to make interactions between humans and robots safer, according to Professor John Madden, of the university’s Faculty of Applied Science.
To find out more see page 4 of the upcoming May issue of Materials World.
