A Novel All-in-One Manufacturing Process for a Soft Sensor System and its Application to a Soft Sensing Glove

A sensing glove is an attractive application of wearable devices. Soft sensors are emerging to replace rigid sensing units, especially for wearable sensor systems, due to its inherent softness, flexibility, and stretchability. However, the fabrication process for the soft sensors is usually complex, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and has low production rate. To integrate a sensor system, an assembly process is essential, which may make the system bulky. Moreover, a solution for the electrode parts has rarely been suggested, although a bulky electrode part may obstruct the user's movement and degrade performance of the sensor. Thus, in this study, a novel fabrication process is suggested based on direct ink writing (DIW) of eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn), which forms all the items in the sensor system from the sensing units, wiring, and the electrode part. A sensing glove for 2D finger motions was fabricated, and its performance was verified in terms of linearity, dynamic response, and accuracy. The sensing glove can be used as an easily-wearable and an intuitive interface to the virtual reality environment.