Abstract
The seamless and adaptive interactions between functional devices and their environment (e.g., the human body) are critical for advancing emerging technologies, e.g., wearable devices, consumer electronics, and human-machine interface. The state-of-the-art technologies, however, require a complex integration of heterogeneous components to interface the environmental mechanical stimulus, which is ubiquitous and abundant in the above applications. Moreover, all existing technologies require a power source, which complicates the system design and limits operation schemes.
I will discuss our recent progress in developing self-powered human-integrated nanodevices through the hybrid nanomanufacturing of heterostructured nanodevices with hierarchical architectures. This new class of wearable devices are conformable to human skins and can sustainably perform non-invasive functions, e.g., physiological monitoring and gesture recognition, by harvesting the operation power from the human body. This research is expected to have a positive impact and immediate relevance to many societally pervasive areas, e.g., biomedical monitoring, consumer electronics, and intelligent robotics.