Imperceptible, designable, and scalable braided electronic cord

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 7097 - 10
• Main Authors: Chen, Min, Ouyang, Jingyu, Jian, Aijia, Liu, Jia, Li, Pan, Hao, Yixue, Gong, Yuchen, Hu, Jiayu, Zhou, Jing, Wang, Rui, Wang, Jiaxi, Hu, Long, Wang, Yuwei, Ouyang, Ju, Zhang, Jing, Hou, Chong, Wei, Lei, Zhou, Huamin, Zhang, Dingyu, Tao, Guangming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.11.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/705/117; Algorithms; Automation; Braiding; Computer terminals; Durability; Electronic devices; Electronics; Fabrication; Flexible components; Gestures; Human-computer interface; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Interfaces; Low cost; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensors; Textiles; User interface; User interfaces
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34918-x

Flexible sensors, friendly interfaces, and intelligent recognition are important in the research of novel human-computer interaction and the development of smart devices. However, major challenges are still encountered in designing user-centered smart devices with natural, convenient, and efficient interfaces. Inspired by the characteristics of textile-based flexible electronic sensors, in this article, we report a braided electronic cord with a low-cost, and automated fabrication to realize imperceptible, designable, and scalable user interfaces. The braided electronic cord is in a miniaturized form, which is suitable for being integrated with various occasions in life. To achieve high-precision interaction, a multi-feature fusion algorithm is designed to recognize gestures of different positions, different contact areas, and different movements performed on a single braided electronic cord. The recognized action results are fed back to varieties of interactive terminals, which show the diversity of cord forms and applications. Our braided electronic cord with the features of user friendliness, excellent durability and rich interaction mode will greatly promote the development of human-machine integration in the future. Inspired by the characteristics of textile-based flexible electronic sensors, the authors report a braided electronic cord with a low-cost, and automated fabrication to realize imperceptible, designable, and scalable user interfaces with the features of user-friendliness, excellent durability and rich interaction mode.