Ionic electronic skin and nose inspired by human sensory physiology

Abstract

Human sensory physiology, which gather and process information about our internal and external world, is communicated to the skin, muscle, and nose as well as the visual, auditory, viscera, and vestibular systems. The phenomenon of ionic transduction essentially constitutes all physiological sensory processes. This inspiration, along with innovations in ionic material design and structural manipulation, has instigated the emerging field of electronic skin and nose to realize artificial intelligence system with unprecedented tactile and smell sensing performance. In addition to be adaptive with soft tissues in nature, the stretchable vital function has advance in artificial electronics. These discoveries on human skin, nose-like sensing systems represent an important step toward highly functional prosthetics and noses. The frontiers are wide open.