Haptic illusions and Wearable chemical sensing
“Haptic illusions for social communication”
Cara Nunez, Ph.D. Candidate, Bioengineering Department, Stanford University
“Utilizing flexible hybrid electronics techniques for wearable chemical sensing applications”
Alexander Cook, Ph.D., Engineering Manager, Process Technologies, Advanced Technologies Group, NextFlex
Date: Tuesday, October 6th, 2020 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm PDT
Zoom Webinar: Please click this link for registration.
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“Haptic illusions for social communication”
Cara Nunez, Ph.D. Candidate, Bioengineering Department, Stanford University
Abstract: During social interactions, people use auditory, visual, and haptic cues to convey their thoughts, emotions, and intentions. Current technology allows humans to convey high quality visual and auditory information remotely but has limited ability to convey haptic expressions. In this presentation, I will discuss how haptic illusions can be used to create sensations often felt during social communication. Our work in developing wearable haptic systems with this technique will allow for improved distant socializing and contribute to empathetic remote human-human interaction as online communication becomes more prevalent.
Bio: Cara M. Nunez is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine Lab. She was a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Graduate Research Fellow in the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in 2019-2020. She received a M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 2018, and a B.S. in biomedical engineering and a B.A. in Spanish as a part of the International Engineering Program from the University of Rhode Island in 2016. Her research interests include haptics and robotics, with a specific focus on haptic perception, cutaneous force feedback techniques, and wearable devices, for medical applications, human-robot interaction, virtual reality, and STEM education. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and the Student Activities Committee Chair for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.
“Utilizing flexible hybrid electronics techniques for wearable chemical sensing applications”
Alexander Cook, Ph.D., Engineering Manager, Process Technologies, Advanced Technologies Group, NextFlex
Abstract: Military and commercial industry personnel are required to inspect and perform maintenance operations in confined spaces. Due to the tight volume of and small ingress points into these spaces, hazardous environmental conditions including toxic gases, low oxygen levels, and high heat indices are not uncommon. Solutions exist detecting these environmental conditions, but not in a small, wearable form factor with real-time reporting. In this presentation, NextFlex will describe how it will fill this gap via a small wearable sensor built with real-time oxygen, VOC, temperature, and humidity monitoring. NextFlex builds the sensors with additive techniques producing print conductive traces and antennas while attaching conventional silicon dies, sensors, and supporting components. This flexible hybrid electronic approach produces a high-performance sensor platform with low size, weight, and power to ease wear by maintainers.
Bio: In the role of Engineering Manager of the Process Technologies team at NextFlex’s Advanced Technologies Group, Alex has taken the lead on developing and debugging new FHE production processes while managing a number project which build novel FHE devices. Prior to joining NextFlex in 2018, Alex worked as a Research Scientist at UES Inc, a contractor to AFRL. While at UES/AFRL, Alex completed projects and authored papers relating to additive techniques for manipulating room temperature liquid metals, origami-inspired foldable RF structures, and contributing to research within the additive manufacturing team at the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate’s Flex Group. Alex received his masters and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas, studying methods of utilizing carbon nanostructures in organic photovoltaics and other organic semiconductor devices.
