A Bifunctional Organohydrogel-Based Triboelectric Strain Sensing Glove for Sign Language Interpretation and Human-Machine Interfacing

In this work, a bifunctional organohydrogel-based triboelectric strain sensor (TSS) has been newly developed and demonstrated for sign language interpretation and human-machine interfacing. The organohydrogel was patterned within Ecoflex elastomer which facilitated contact and separation between the material pair when subjected to applied strain resulting in measurable electrical response. This configuration allows the fabrication of wearable strain sensors independent of skin effect, eliminating the inconsistency in performance caused by variation in skin surface roughness across individuals and body parts. The fabricated TSS demonstrated excellent linear response to applied strain during stretching (12.46 mV/%) and finger bending conditions making it highly applicable to wearable devices such as a smart glove for sign language interpretation (SLI) and human-machine interface (HMI).