A Finger-worn Epidermal Antenna for Pressure Sensing

Radiofrequency finger augmentation devices (R-FADs) are hand-worn systems based on the RFID (radiofrequency identification) that can sense the objects touched by the wearer while preserving the free-hand gestures. A pressure-sensing R-FAD could be useful for applications in physiotherapy, orthopedy, and even more with the upcoming Tactile Internet (TI) paradigm, which aims at extremely low-latency communications and the transmission of human senses through the internet. This paper proposes a pressure-sensing fingertip tag that is manufactured using a robust conducting thread. Following preliminary tests on a prototype, the tag was demonstrated sensible enough to swiftly detect small discontinuities of the human body, like the back-hand knuckles.