Ultra-Adhesive Electronic Tattoo as a Universal Flexible Keyboard With Plug-and-Play for Human–Computer Interaction
Qin Zhang, Fan Shen, Quan Zhang, Yan Peng, Zhongjie Li · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · 2025
The existing human-computer interaction often presents problems such as bulky components, simple interaction methods, and poor universality. Here, we proposed a flexible electronic tattoo keyboard (FETK) system based on an electronic tattoo triboelectric nanogenerator (ET-TENG) which consist of an improved thermoplastic polyurethanes (i-TPU) and conductive silver paste. The i-TPU is fabricated by adding tributyl citrate (TBC) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) powder to thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) to improve its flexibility and wear resistance. Considering the portability in practical use, we have designed a signal acquisition circuit and several post-processing programs to obtain and identify signals from human finger touch accurately and stably. Furthermore, we proposed a dual-mode/multi-channel strategy to increase the number of channels and achieve one-to-one triggering of commonly used keyboard keys. Finally, we demonstrated the interactive process of using it as a keyboard to control computer output. It is worth mentioning that the FETK system we prepared can be used as a universal keyboard for plug-and-play portable use.