Electro-prosthetic E-skin Successfully Delivers Finger Aperture Distance by Electro-Prosthetic Proprioception (EPP)

Electronic skin (E-skin) is an emerging wearable device typically used to mimic the function of the human skin, mainly by replicating the role of tactile sensory receptors in the skin. This study showed an interesting modification of the E-skin, called an electro-prosthetic E-skin, which adds the functionality of distance sensing and stimulation of the palmar digital nerve. The electro-prosthetic E-skin operates as a closed loop to deliver the finger aperture distance information to the nervous system. This E-skin was implemented as an additional layer mounted to the original human skin, to be worn on the fingertip with a thin silicone substrate. The E-skin was designed to be mounted onto the index fingertip, to deliver the distance information between the fingertips and to enhance the finger aperture distance control. In this study, we demonstrated that electro-prosthetic proprioception (EPP), implemented with the electro-prosthetic E-skin, successfully delivered the distance information between the fingertips and enhanced the finger aperture distance control accuracy. Clinical Relevance- Presented electro-prosthetic E-skin delivering finger aperture distance via electro-prosthetic proprioception (EPP) will enhance accuracy of the finger aperture distance control. This technology can be applied to the neurosurgery to minimize unforced errors caused by the limited human control accuracy over the fingertip.