Feeling touch on your own body without making skin contact. There are restrictions in life where direct contact is not allowed. But the attempt to create a feeling of contact via a virtual world is now being made possible by smart textiles. From 22 to 26 April, the team led by Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki from Saarland University will be presenting this technology at the Hannover Messe. A wafer-thin film that can transmit touch sensations turns fabrics into a second, virtual skin. It is designed to make seriously ill children in isolation wards feel the physical closeness of their parents during computer-simulated visits: it is designed to transmit their stroking sensations.

Saarland, April, 04th, 2024 Touch calms the body, reduces stress, comforts, conveys safety, security and closeness. When the nerve cells in the skin transmit such stimuli, many areas of the brain become active at lightning speed, fuelling the body’s own biochemistry. Hormones and other messenger substances are released, including oxytocin, which creates a sense of well-being and bonding.

A research team at Saarland University, Saarland University of Applied Sciences (htw saar), the Centre for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is working together across disciplinary boundaries to ensure that children in isolation wards can feel the physical closeness of their parents during virtual visits and immerse themselves in this experience as realistically as possible.

The team led by Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki are specialists in the field of applying new capabilities to surfaces using lightweight silicone films. Just as the skin is the human body’s interface to the real outside world, the film is to become its interface to the virtual world. The aim is to create a new perception of the body in fictional reality. Incorporated into a textile, the films are intended to transfer the touches to the child’s skin that occur when the mother or father strokes a second smart textile elsewhere. The film acts as a sensor to recognise how exactly the hand and fingers press, dent and stretch the film when stroking it. The film imitates the exact deformation caused by the touching movements in a second textile on the child’s skin to give the impression of being stroked on the arm, for example. The process is inexpensive, lightweight, noiseless and energy-efficient. The film technology can also intensify the gaming experience in computer games by creating a realistic body perception.

At the Hannover Messe, the Saarbrücken experts for intelligent material systems will be showcasing further developments with dielectric elastomers: for example, other smart textiles such as sensory shirts or shoe soles, pumps and vacuum pumps as well as high-performance actuators. Background: Saarland University, htw saar and the Centre for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) are working together at the Center for Digital Neurotechnologies Saar (CDNS) on the Homburg Medical Campus as part of the ERDF project ‘Multi-Immerse’, which is headed by Professor Martina Lehser (Saarland University of Applied Sciences htw saar/ZeMA). In addition to Professor Martina Lehser and Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki, Professor Daniel Strauss (Director of the Systems Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Unit), Professor Michael Zemlin (Director of the University Paediatric Clinic), Professor Eva Möhler (Director of the University Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) and computer scientists from Saarland University (Professor Jürgen Steimle) and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) are also involved from Saarland University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Picture Source: Oliver Dietze, Universität des Saarlandes

PhD student Sipontina Croce and student Lukas Roth (right) are researching films that give textiles new capabilities. Smart work gloves are becoming possible, as are smart ‘watches’ that make virtual touches perceptible.

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