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WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY

Textiles for learning tactile interactions

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 175–176 (2021)Cite this article

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An AI-assisted smart textile can be used to record, model and understand human–environment interactions.

Our sense of touch — in which pressure stimuli on the skin are converted into physiological signals and then transferred to the brain via the nervous system1 — allows us to perceive information from the environment around us. Modelling and understanding such human–environment interactions is, however, challenging due to the limited tactile sensing capabilities of artificial skins and sensory interfaces2. Textiles are a common interface between human skin and the ambient environment, and thus could potentially be used to build a tactile learning platform. But to achieve this, smart textiles — and ideally full-body smart garments — are required, which are fabricated by blending textiles with electronic devices3.

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Fig. 1: A textile-based tactile learning platform.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Guorui Chen, Yunsheng Fang, Xun Zhao, Trinny Tat & Jun Chen

Authors
  1. Guorui Chen
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  2. Yunsheng Fang
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  3. Xun Zhao
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  4. Trinny Tat
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  5. Jun Chen
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Correspondence to Jun Chen.

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Chen, G., Fang, Y., Zhao, X. et al. Textiles for learning tactile interactions. Nat Electron 4, 175–176 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00560-6

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