A Flexible Temperature Sensor for Noncontact Human-Machine Interaction.

Abstract

Flexible sensors have attracted extensive attention because of their promising applications in the fields of health monitoring, intelligent robots, and electronic skin, etc. During the COVID-19 epidemic, noncontact control of public equipment such as elevators, game consoles, and doors has become particularly important, as it can effectively reduce the risk of cross-infection. In this work, a noncontact flexible temperature sensor is prepared via a simple dip-drying progress, in which poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and printer paper served as the sensing material and the flexible substrate, respectively. We combined the highly sensitive temperature-responsive property of PEDOT:PSS with the good hygroscopicity of printer paper. The prepared sensor shows high sensitivity and good stability in noncontact sensing mode within the temperature range of 20-50 °C. To prove the practicability of the noncontact temperature sensor, a 3 × 2 sensing array is prepared as a noncontact human-machine interface to realize the interaction between player and "Pound-A-Mole game" and a Bluetooth car. These two demos show the sensor's ability to perceive nearby temperature changes, verifying its application potential as a noncontact human-machine interaction interface.

• Authors: Shiqi Chen, Xiaolong Han, Peng Hong, Yue Zhang, Xiangyu Yin, Bingwei He
• Journal: Materials (Basel, Switzerland) (Materials (Basel)) Vol. 14 Issue 23 (Nov 23 2021) ISSN: 1996-1944 [Print] Switzerland
• PMID: 34885268 (Publication Type: Journal Article)