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This AI Skin Patch Lets You Send and Receive Text Through Touch

Human touch is one of the most expressive forms of communication. A gentle tap, a firm press, or a series of quick touches can carry meaning far beyond words. But digital devices have never truly been able to capture this richness. Phones and tablets only understand simple gestures like taps, swipes, or long presses. That means most of the information our skin can sense remains unused.

Now, a new invention is beginning to change this.

Scientists have created an AI-enhanced, ultra-soft, wireless skin patch that allows people to send and receive text messages entirely through touch. This skin-like device can interpret touch patterns and convert them into text using the same system computers use—ASCII. Even more impressively, it can also send text back to the user through carefully controlled vibrations. This makes it a two-way tactile communication system, something never achieved before with this level of detail and flexibility.

Why Do We Need Touch-Based Communication?

Our skin is the largest sense organ we have. It can detect tiny changes in pressure, texture, temperature, and movement. Yet our devices barely use this capability.

Most digital interactions rely heavily on two senses:

  • Sight (screens)

  • Sound (alerts, calls, feedback)

But what about situations where seeing or hearing is difficult or impossible?

  • Patients who cannot speak

  • Workers in noisy environments

  • Users in complete darkness

  • People with visual or hearing disabilities

  • Situations where screens cannot be used (military, space, underwater)

A device that can read and send information through touch alone opens doors for all these scenarios.

Scientists have tried to create such devices before. They experimented with gloves filled with sensors, wearable bands that feel pressure, and surfaces that create patterns of vibration. Some worked well in tests but failed in real life because they were:

  • too stiff,

  • uncomfortable,

  • unable to bend with the skin,

  • limited to very simple gestures,

  • or unable to deliver meaningful feedback.

Also, none could communicate using a standard computer language like ASCII. Without that, the information they send remains limited.

The Breakthrough: A Soft, Flexible Skin Patch That Can Speak the Language of Computers

The new research published in Advanced Functional Materials presents a device that solves these problems. It is a stretchable, comfortable, AI-powered skin patch that can:

  • read touch patterns,

  • convert them into any ASCII character (letters, numbers, punctuation),

  • and send tactile feedback back to the user.

This creates an entire communication loop on the skin itself.

Highlights of the invention:

  • Works wirelessly

  • Matches the softness of human skin

  • Recognizes full 128 ASCII characters

  • Uses AI trained on synthetic data

  • Sends vibration feedback in multiple levels

  • Supports fast, real-time communication

  • Can control external devices like games

Let’s explore how it works piece by piece.

1. Skin-Like Electronics: Materials That Move Naturally With the Body

To work on the skin, a device must:

  • bend easily

  • stretch without breaking

  • be soft and comfortable

The researchers built the patch using serpentine-shaped copper traces printed on a flexible polyimide sheet. The serpentine pattern acts like a spring, letting the circuit stretch and twist without damage.

Mechanical properties:

  • 20% stretch without breaking

  • 5 cm bending radius

  • 90° twisting

  • Electrical resistance stays stable near 1.5 ohms

  • Final softness: 435.1 kPa, close to real skin

A soft silicone coating adds comfort and durability, while a silicone adhesive lets users attach or remove the patch easily.

This design means the device feels like a second skin.

2. Iontronic Sensing: A New Way to Detect Touch

At the heart of the patch is an iontronic gel-based pressure sensor, an advanced technology that uses the movement of ions instead of electrons. This makes the sensor extremely sensitive to even tiny touches.

The sensor is built from:

  • a polyimide base

  • a thin layer of commercial rice paper

  • a PVA–H₃PO₄ gel that forms an ionic layer

  • a flexible copper electrode on top

When a user presses the patch, the copper electrode makes more contact with the gel-coated rice-paper layer, changing its capacitance. This change is measured and interpreted as pressure.

Sensor performance:

  • Sensitivity: 997.2 kPa⁻¹

  • Minimum detectable pressure: 0.8 Pa (extremely tiny)

  • Resolution: 200 Pa at 10 kPa

  • Response time: 34 ms

  • Recovery time: 27 ms

  • Works reliably for 800 cycles

  • Safe and non-toxic

The use of rice paper keeps the device inexpensive and scalable for mass production.

3. Vibration Feedback: Turning Text Back Into Touch

To send information back to the user, the patch uses tiny vibration motors known as eccentric rotating mass (ERM) actuators. These are the same type of motors found in mobile phones, but much smaller and tuned for precision.

The device controls vibration strength using pulse-width modulation (PWM). By adjusting how long the motor receives power, it can create different levels of vibration.

Performance:

  • 7 different vibration levels

  • Pressure equivalent: 0.43 to 1.57 kPa

  • Best feedback pulses: 400 milliseconds

  • Users correctly identified:

    • 91% of which motor was active

    • 92.5% of vibration intensities

This makes tactile feedback accurate and reliable, enabling the user to “feel” incoming text.

4. Mapping Touch to ASCII: How the Patch Reads and Sends Text

ASCII is a standard digital language used worldwide. It includes:

  • Uppercase and lowercase letters

  • Numbers

  • Punctuation

  • Special symbols

Each character is represented by a 7-bit binary number.

The patch divides each ASCII character into four two-bit segments. Each of the four sensors on the patch corresponds to one segment.

Example:

  • Pressing sensor 1 twice might mean “10”

  • Pressing sensor 2 once might mean “01”

The system reads how many times each sensor is pressed in a short window, decodes the four segments, and reconstructs the ASCII character.

To send the character back, the patch vibrates:

  • Each actuator a set number of times

  • Matching the ASCII segments

This creates a complete tactile language.

5. AI Trained on Synthetic Data: A Smart Shortcut

Normally, to train a neural network to recognize all ASCII touch patterns, scientists would need thousands of real samples. That takes time and effort.

Instead, the team created synthetic data.

How they generated synthetic touch signals:

A real press has 4 phases:

  1. Rising

  2. Peak

  3. Falling

  4. Return to baseline

They mathematically modeled these phases and randomized:

  • Pressing force

  • Duration

  • Number of presses

This produced massive datasets of realistic sensor signals without needing human volunteers for each sample.

A convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on this synthetic data reached:

  • 100% accuracy when classifying characters into groups

  • Excellent performance in real-time recognition

This confirms that synthetic datasets can successfully train AI for tactile communication.

6. Real Demonstrations: From Messaging to Gaming

To test the device in real-world situations, the researchers performed two demonstrations.

Demo 1: Sending the message “Go!”

  • The user pressed the four sensors in sequences representing G, o, and !

  • The computer correctly decoded them

  • The patch sent vibration confirmation back to the user

  • No screen or sound was needed

This shows eyes-free communication is possible.

Demo 2: Controlling a racing game

The user steered a virtual car with touch inputs. Meanwhile, the patch used vibration intensity to warn the user when other cars were close.

Distance → Vibration pressure

  • 80 units → 0.43 kPa

  • 60 units → 0.78 kPa

  • 40 units → 1.23 kPa

  • 20 units → 1.57 kPa

The direction of vibration matched the location of the approaching car.

This demonstrates how tactile feedback can support immersive interaction without screens.

What This Breakthrough Means for the Future

This AI-enhanced skin patch is more than a scientific prototype—it points toward a new era of human-device interaction.

1. Communication Without Screens or Sound

Imagine sending messages while:

  • riding a bike

  • walking in the dark

  • working in a loud factory

  • performing military operations

  • scuba diving

  • being in a hospital bed

Touch-based text could keep people connected even when traditional communication tools fail.

2. Support for People With Disabilities

For individuals who are:

  • visually impaired

  • hearing impaired

  • unable to speak

  • unable to use their hands for typing

This patch could become a lifeline—allowing them to input and receive information using gentle touches.

3. Wearable Controllers for Games and VR

Gamers could feel:

  • direction

  • speed

  • danger

  • hit feedback

directly through the skin.

This creates a deeper level of immersion.

4. New Interaction Tools for Smart Clothing

Future jackets, gloves, or sleeves might include this sensor patch to enable:

  • silent communication

  • navigation through vibration

  • smart alerts

  • text-based instructions

5. Medical Monitoring and Non-Verbal Communication

For patients with limited mobility, doctors and caregivers could exchange instructions or warnings through tactile signals.

Challenges and Future Improvements

Although this patch shows tremendous promise, there is room for improvement. The researchers identified the next steps:

  • Better breathability so the patch can be worn all day

  • Fully integrated onboard computing

  • Longer battery life

  • More compact vibration motors

  • Even more intuitive tactile patterns

  • Compatibility with clothing and accessories

With further development, the patch could evolve into a mainstream communication tool.

Conclusion: Turning Touch Into a New Language

The AI-enhanced skin patch is a groundbreaking step toward touch-based digital communication. By combining soft materials, sensitive iontronic sensors, precise vibration feedback, and synthetic-data-powered AI, the device can both read and send the full range of ASCII characters through touch.

This means your skin can now talk to machines—and machines can talk back.

It opens the door to a future where communication is:

  • hands-free

  • screen-free

  • sound-free

  • and fully intuitive

Whether for accessibility, safety, gaming, or everyday convenience, this technology represents a major leap toward richer, more human-centered digital interaction.

Reference: Z. Ding, F. Zhuo, Y. Yang, Y. Xie, X. Hu, and L. Che, “ A Fully Integrated Patch for Real-Time AI-Enhanced Haptic Closed-Loop Interaction of Complete 128 ASCII Codes.” Adv. Funct. Mater. (2025): e19535. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202519535

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