Wearable Electronic Sensors for Biomedical

Applications using E-Whiskers

Importance:
Whiskers are hairlike tactile sensors used by certain mammals and insects to monitor wind and
navigate around local obstacles.
Mammalian whiskers present an important class of tactile sensors that complement the
functionalities of skin for detecting wind with high sensitivity and navigation around local
obstacles.(as low as 1Pa with high sensitivity).
Introduction:
Recent progress of flexible and wearable health-monitoring devices is introduced by showing
examples of flexible sensor components (e.g., strain sensors for heartbeat monitoring and
temperature sensors) with an emphasis on printing techniques using inorganic materials to form
flexible sensor components on flexible substrates for high performance and low-cost flexible
electronics.
Printing methods create flexible sensors, which are the next class of economical and disposable
wearable health-monitoring devices that will allow people to use these devices without awareness
similar to a bandage and a sanitary environment. For commercial applications, flexible sensor
devices need to be further developed and signal processing circuits must be integrated on flexible
substrates.
However, the concept may significantly contribute to comfortable, convenient, secure, and healthy
human lives. Periodic health condition monitoring using flexible and wearable health-monitoring
devices should allow data to be gathered for medical purposes and even predict illness prior to the
onset of symptoms.
Functionalities mimicking biological systems are of tremendous interest in developing smart and
user-interactive electronics. For example, artificial electronic skin (e-skin) and electronic eye (eeye) have been developed recently by engineering novel material and device concepts on thin
flexible substrates that give ordinary objects and surfaces the ability to feel and see the
environment.
Whiskers present yet another important class of sensor components that can monitor the airflow,
mediate tactile sensing for spatial mapping of nearby objects, and even enable balance during
motion for advanced robotics with capabilities resembling those found in certain insects and
mammals. Several approaches to date have been explored to realize electronic whiskers (ewhiskers), among which bulky torque/force sensors placed at the base of micromillimeter-scale
fibers are most frequently used.
Current Universities working on the Technology
Given recent advances in biomimicry, it was only a matter of time before scientists granted
machines a similar sensory power by outfitting robots with artificial whiskers. Ali Javey, an
associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the tfgUniversity of
California, Berkeley, has done it. Javey's robo-whiskers made their debut in a study in the journal
PNAS. [Editor's Note: Link to study will go live in the afternoon of Tuesday, January 21.]
E-whiskers use wispy nanomaterials in place of hair follicles, and swap out nerve endings for
electronic instrumentation. But Javey maintains that his creation is fundamentally like its biological

analogue. "The sensing mechanism is quite different, but the functionality is very similar," he says.

Applications of E-Whiskers in different Feilds

1. Silver Nanowire Sensors Hold Promise for Prosthetics, Robotics
A team of scientists at North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, used silver nanowires to develop wearable,
multifunctional sensors that, they say, could be used in
biomedical applications, including new prosthetics or robotic
systems. The sensors can measure strain, pressure, human
touch, and bioelectronic signals such as electrocardiograms.
They explained that the technology is similar to the
mechanism used in smartphone touch screens, but the
sensors they developed are stretchable and can be mounted
on a variety of curvilinear surfaces, such as human skin.
The researchers sandwiched an insulating material between
two layers of stretchable conductors. Pushing, pulling, or
touching the stretchable conductors changes the capacitance,
or the ability to store electric charges. The sensors work by
measuring that change in capacitance.
The researchers used these sensors to monitor thumb
movement, which can be useful in controlling robotic or
prosthetic devices. They also demonstrated an application to
monitor knee movements while a test subject is running,
walking, and jumping. And, they developed an array of
sensors that can map pressure distribution, which is
important for use in robotics and prosthetics applications.

A sensor based on silver nanowires is

mounted onto a thumb joint to monitor
the skin strain associated with thumb
flexing. The sensor shows good
wearability and large-strain sensing
capability. (Credit: Shanshan Yao)

2. Bio-Inspired Robotic Rehabilitation Device

A soft, wearable device that mimics the muscles,
tendons, and ligaments of the lower leg could aid in
the rehabilitation of patients with foot-ankle
disorders such as drop foot, said Yong-Lae Park, an
assistant professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA.
He developed an active orthotic device using soft
plastics and composite materials, instead of a rigid
exoskeleton. The soft materials, combined with
pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), lightweight
sensors, and advanced control software, made it
possible for the robotic device to achieve natural
ankle motion.

A bio-inspired robotic device could aid anklefoot rehabilitation. (Credit: Carnegie Mellon
University)
The devices artificial tendons were attached to four PAMs, which correspond with three muscles in
the foreleg and one in the back that control ankle motion.
Among the innovations in the device are sensors made of a touch-sensitive artificial skin, thin
rubber sheets that contain long microchannels filled with a liquid metal alloy. When these rubber
sheets are stretched or pressed, the shapes of the microchannels change, which in turn causes

changes in the electrical resistance of the alloy. These sensors were positioned on the top and at the
side of the ankle. To view a video of the technology, visit www.techbriefs.com/tv/soft-orthotic.

3. Monitoring Cerebral Pressure in Hydrocephalus

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for
Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in
Duisburg, Germany, have developed a sensor that
can measure and individually adjust brain pressure if
the pressure is too high in the brain of a patient with
hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.
In hydrocephalus, the brain produces either too much
cerebral fluid, or cannot drain off sufficient fluid,
which increases pressure in the brain, resulting in
damage. A shunt system implanted into the patients
brain draws off superfluous fluid.
The new sensor implanted along with the shunt
Physicians can measure cerebral pressure with
system, allows physicians to read brain pressure
the aid of implanted monitoring sensor. They
using a hand-held meter within seconds. If the
merely place a hand-held reading device on
patient experiences discomfort, the physician can
the head of the patient. (Credit: Patrick J.
place a hand-held meter on the outside of the
Lynch/Fraunhofer IMS)
patients head. The device sends magnetic radio
waves and supplies the sensor in the shunt with power, which then measures temperature and
pressure in the cerebral fluid, and transmits these data back to the hand-held device.
4. Sensitive Electronic Whiskers for Robotics
Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the University of California,
Berkeley, say that they have created tactile sensors
from composite films of carbon nanotubes and silver
nanoparticles similar to the highly sensitive whiskers
of cats and rats. These new e-whiskers respond to the
slightest pressure. Among their many potential
applications is giving robots new abilities to see
E-whiskers are highly responsive tactile
and feel their surrounding environment.
sensor networks made from carbon nanotubes
To create the whiskers, they used a carbon nanotube and silver nanoparticles that resemble the
paste to form an electrically conductive network
whiskers of cats and other mammals.
matrix with excellent bendability. Then they loaded a
thin film of silver nanoparticles that endowed the matrix with high sensitivity to mechanical strain.
The composite can then be painted or printed onto high-aspect-ratio elastic fibers to form ewhiskers that can be integrated with different user-interactive systems. In tests, the whiskers were
10 times more sensitive to pressure than all previously reported capacitive or resistive pressure
sensors, they reported.
They say that e-whiskers could lead to wearable sensors for measuring heartbeat and pulse rate, and
should have a wide range of applications for advanced robotics, human-machine user interfaces,
and biological applications.

5. Portable Diagnostics Using Holograms

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK,
are working to develop portable medical devices,
which could be used to monitor medical conditions
like diabetes, cardiac function, or infections easily
and inexpensively using color-changing holograms
that react in the presence of certain compounds.
The smart holograms can be used to test a variety
of bodily fluids, including blood, urine, saliva, or
tears for a wide range of compounds, such as
glucose, alcohol, hormones, drugs, or bacteria. When
Holographic paper macro (Credit:
one of these compounds is present, the hologram
changes color, potentially making the monitoring of dominicotine)
various conditions as simple as checking the color of the hologram against a color gradient chart.
The project uses hydrogels impregnated with tiny particles of silver. Using a single laser pulse, the
silver nanoparticles are formed into three-dimensional holograms of predetermined shapes within
seconds.
When in the presence of certain compounds, the hydrogels either shrink or swell, causing the color
of the hologram to change to any other color in the entire visible spectrum, the first time that this
has been achieved in any hydrogel-based sensor, they say.