Silver Nanowire Stretchable Sensors Measure Strain and Human Touch

Jan-18-14 Using silver nanowire, researchers have created stretchable sensors that could lead to prosthetics able to respond to a user’s movement or robots able to ‘feel’ their environment.

The new sensor grew out of the highly conductive elastic conductors developed by Dr. Yong Zhu and a team at North Carolina State University in 2012. Now the team has applied the technology to create a device able to store an electric charge (an ability called capacitance), which they built by placing an insulating material between a pair of the silver nanowire conductors. The device’s capacitance is changed whenever the conductors are pushed, pulled or touched, and this change can be measured by the device’s sensors.

The new sensors have already been demonstrated in prototype applications, including monitoring thumb movement—useful in controlling robotic or prosthetic devices—and monitoring knee movements while a subject was walking, running and jumping.

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[GIZMAG.COM]
[STANFORD UNIVERSITY]

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