Electrostatic Smart Textiles for Braille‐To‐Speech Translation

Abstract

Wearable Braille‐to‐speech translation system is of great importance for providing auditory feedback in assisting blind people and people with speech impairment. However, previous reported Braille‐to‐speech translation systems still need to be improved in terms of comfortability or integration. Here, we report a Braille‐to‐speech translation system that uses dual‐functional electrostatic transducers which are made of fabric‐based materials and can be integrated into textiles. Based on electrostatic induction, the electrostatic transducer can either serve as a tactile sensor or a loudspeaker with the same design. The proposed electrostatic transducers have excellent output performances, mechanical robustness, and working stability. By combining the devices with machine learning algorithms, it is possible to translate Braille alphabet and 40 commonly used words (extensible) into speech with an accuracy of 99.09% and 97.08%, respectively. This work demonstrates a new approach for further developments of advanced assistive technology towards improving the life of disabled people.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

A stretchable and self-powered strain sensor with elastomeric electret

“…And many researches focus on the electret self-powered sensors to verify its application in wearable and flexible electronics [26][27][28]. Electret is a dielectric material with a quasi-permanent electrical charge or dipolar polarization [29][30][31][32], showing possibility of self-powering during sensing. Limited by their inherent material properties, typical electret materials such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polyfluoroalkoxy (PFA), etc., are mostly hard solid materials with large elastic modulus values and limited elastic deformation ranges, thus lacking tensile properties.…”