New flexible sensors make it possible to fold the touch screen

University of British Columbia to develop a new type of flexible sensor to meet the future requirements of the folding device on the sensor. The sensor has a highly conductive gel sandwiched between layers of silicone that detects different types of touch, including sliding and taping, and stretches, folds, or bends.

According to researchers at the University of British Columbia, there are many types of sensors currently available, including the Apple Touch 3D touch that senses the pressure, the Samsung AirView that detects finger hovering, and the collapsible, transparent and stretched sensors, but their results combine multiple sensor functions In one, with gel and silicone as raw materials, the process is simple, low cost and easy to obtain, easy to large-scale production, the cost per square meter is only a few dollars. Its extensibility, suitable for any surface or wearable device on the inner wall of the room, can also be used as the "skin" of the robot, enabling the robot to detect human existence and being "soft" enough to make the human-machine interaction environment safer.

Assuming the tablet is folded into the size of a cellphone into a garment pocket or artificial skin sensing physical activity and vital signs may pass their new, inexpensive sensor, the ideal is expected to become a reality. This research was funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and published in the March 2017 issue of Scientific Progress magazine.