An all-fibrous, permeable, adhesive, and stretchable self-powered electronic skin for sign language recognition

Abstract

Self-powered human motion electronic skins (E-skins) hold significant potential for intelligent sports, healthcare, and human–machine interactions. However, the limited permeability to air and moisture, along with poor stretchability, impedes the wearing comfort, long-term application, and skin compliance of self-powered E-skins. Here, we present an all-fibrous, permeable, adhesive, and intrinsically stretchable electronic skin (PASE-skin). The PASE-skin employs core-sheath fiber mats, liquid-metal-fiber mats, and acrylic fiber mats as the triboelectric layer, electrode layer, and skin adhesive layer, respectively, to achieve an all-fibrous and intrinsically stretchable structure. Such a material and structural design simultaneously offer exceptional stretchability, minimal residual strain, textile-like breathability, skin adhesion, biocompatibility, and good sensing performance. The core-sheath structure increases the stretchability of the triboelectric layer threefold, from 200% to 600%. The liquid-metal-fiber mat electrode maintains stable conductivity even under extreme strains (900%) and numerous stretching cycles (10 000 times at 100% strain). The E-skin generates significant triboelectric outputs and maintains stable sensing performance up to 450% strain. Consequently, we have developed a 5-channel human motion sensing system based on PASE-skin, capable of real-time sign language recognition assisted by signal processing and machine learning algorithms. The PASE-skin is poised to make a substantial impact on the development of self-powered human motion E-skins and offers novel insights into the field of sign language recognition.