Sensors and actuators

Abstract

This chapter addresses sensors and actuators for three main sensory modalities: hearing, vision, and touch. Technology in recent years was often focused on flat displays, e.g., or smartwatches. In contrast, the focus of this chapter is on wearable technologies of the post-smartphone area, allowing rich sensory input and output modalities. New approaches for tactile feedback include fiber-based sensors and actuators for e-textiles as well as complex 3D-fiber structures. Wearable sound sources and innovative sound-projection solutions using perceptual knowledge can replace complex distributed channel systems. One way to reduce latencies in vision are Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) eyeables, that have the potential to significantly improving reaction time and power consumption. Combining the expertise of human perception and action with that on sensors and actuators contributes to augmented perception and interaction to exchange perceptual knowledge, which is needed for holistic sensor and actuator development. Moreover, sensors and actuators combined with tactile electronics in terms of flexible electronics and circuits for interfacing/processing explore new technologies for haptic and robotic systems.