A tactile oral pad based on carbon nanotubes for multimodal haptic interaction

Wearable systems that incorporate soft tactile sensors that transmit spatio-temporal touch patterns may be useful in the development of biomedical robotics. Such systems have been employed for tasks such as typing and device operation, but their effectiveness in converting pressure patterns into specific control commands lags behind that of traditional finger-operated electronic devices. Here, we describe a tactile oral pad with a touch sensor array made from a carbon nanotube and silicone composite. The oral pad can be operated by moving either the tongue or teeth, and it can detect various strains so that it functions like a touchscreen. Combined with a recurrent neural network, we show that the oral pad can be used for typing, gaming and wheelchair navigation through cooperative control of tongue sliding (below 50 kPa pressure) and teeth clicking (above 500 kPa pressure).