Touch-sensing fabric encapsulated with hydrogel for human–computer interaction

Abstract

Flexible touch-sensing devices have attracted extensive attention in wearable electronics and human–machine interaction. The ionic touch-sensing hydrogels are ideal candidates for these scenarios, but the absorbed water evaporates easily from the hydrogel, reducing their working time and stability. Herein, we propose a touch-sensing fabric system composed of non-woven cellulose fabrics as a sheath shell layer encapsulated with a hydrogel filling layer. The resultant touch-sensing fabric has a super-thin structure (1 mm) and exhibits a low detecting threshold (50 Pa), high durability (100k times), strain/pressure insensitivity and extremely high touch positioning accuracy. In the proof of concept, a smart touch-sensing glove is equipped with our fabric, which can execute human–computer interaction as a flexible touch-sensing device.