Abstract
The integration and cooperation of mechanoreceptors, neurons and synapses in somatosensory systems enable humans to efficiently sense and process tactile information. Inspired by biological somatosensory systems, we report an optoelectronic spiking afferent nerve with neural coding, perceptual learning and memorizing capabilities to mimic tactile sensing and processing. Our system senses pressure by MXene-based sensors, converts pressure information to light pulses by coupling light-emitting diodes to analog-to-digital circuits, then integrates light pulses using a synaptic photomemristor. With neural coding, our spiking nerve is capable of not only detecting simultaneous pressure inputs, but also recognizing Morse code, braille, and object movement. Furthermore, with dimensionality-reduced feature extraction and learning, our system can recognize and memorize handwritten alphabets and words, providing a promising approach towards e-skin, neurorobotics and human-machine interaction technologies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1369 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Mar 2020 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant nos. 316973, 316857, and 13293916), and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through a Fellowship grant and support to the Linköping Ultra Electron Microscopy Laboratory. The project made use of the Micronova Nanofabrication Center and the Aalto University Nanomicroscopy Center (Aalto-NMC), supported by Aalto University.