Pressure Sensor Based on Melamine Frame Graphene Aerogel for Pulse Recording and Identification in Traditional Chinese Medicine

In this article, we developed a graphene-melamine graphene aerogel sensor to integrate the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pulse diagnosis with modern information technologies. Owing to the reduced graphene oxide (GO) network embedded in the melamine frame, the sensor demonstrates a high gauge factor (GF) of 596.2 with high repeatability, enhancing the accuracy of pulse signal detection. Moreover, the porous structure of the sensing material augments its piezoresistive properties, exhibiting a “fast-then-slow” pattern in resistance changes. The reasonable pulse signal is collected by experienced TCM practitioners accurately locating specific pulse points—Cun, Guan, and Chi—and applying the optimal pressure with the proposed sensor adhered on their fingertip. By employing continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and ResNet-50 for advanced signal processing and classification, the study attains a classification accuracy of 90.1% in differentiating pulse patterns between pregnant and nonpregnant women. This high level of accuracy demonstrates the potential of integrating this technology to standardize and validate TCM diagnostic techniques, potentially broadening the acceptance of TCM in global health systems.