A patch has been developed to accurately convey tactile sensations in virtual worlds and help the visually impaired

Researchers from Northwestern University (USA) have developed a high-tech patch to transmit to the wearer a whole range of tactile sensations, from soft touch and stroking to strong pressure and stretching. The invention can have both entertainment purposes, for example, for feedback from virtuality, and medical purposes, for example, helping visually impaired people better navigate in space.

Image source: Northwestern University

The prototype patch is a silicone base in the shape of a hexagon with 19 actuators. The actuators may vibrate or create pressure on the skin in the area they touch. The main innovation lies precisely in the drives, which are declared as devices with record energy efficiency.

The drives receive signals from a smartphone via Bluetooth. Each of them has a miniature battery built into it. The software sets the order and mode of turning on the drives to transmit specified tactile sensations to human skin. Scientists have managed to create a solution that is capable of maintaining two opposite stable states of drives without consuming energy. For long-term wearing of such patches, this is a real godsend.

According to the researchers, they were able to harness the potential contained in the natural elasticity of human skin. When the drive acts on the skin, it contracts and remains in a tense state until a command is sent to the sensor, after which it switches the drive to the opposite state without consuming energy – only due to the accumulated compression force.

In addition to transmitting tactile sensations during games and traveling through virtual worlds, the proposed tactile patch provides visually impaired people with “basic vision.” This is a kind of substitute for a cane, with the help of which the visually impaired feel the space around them. Now lidar on a smartphone can do this, transmitting encoded information to a patch with sensors. Experiments on volunteers have shown that the system works successfully and can replace a cane for greater comfort for a person with poor or no vision.