South Korean universities develop full-body wearable suit for touch and therapy

A team of researchers from the University of Seoul and Hanyang University has created a revolutionary wearable suit capable of delivering both full-body tactile sensations and therapeutic electrical stimulation simultaneously. Dubbed the Textile-based Electrical Stimulation Suit (TESS), this innovation promises to advance human-computer interaction and medical treatment.

The TESS system utilizes a fabric-based wearable infrastructure to transmit electrical stimuli across the entire body. Unlike previous devices focused on hand or localized touch, TESS enables a comprehensive sense of touch. Its unique feature is the integration of multiple functionalities into one system: haptic feedback (touch simulation), muscle and nerve stimulation for therapeutic purposes, and interfaces for Extended Reality (XR) applications like augmented and virtual reality.

Researchers successfully simulated diverse tactile sensations such as touch, tickling, roughness, and pressure by precisely controlling the frequency and intensity of electrical stimulation. The system achieved a remarkable user recognition accuracy of approximately 90% for these sensations. The development of the suit involved key contributions from both universities, with the University of Seoul team focusing on material technology and Hanyang University's team on circuit and system design.

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The TESS developed this time is a wearable neural interface platform that delivers precise electrical stimulation to the entire body and implements a consistent tactile interface based on pressure signal feedback.

The University of Seoul's team developed a flexible, low-impedance electrode structure by combining a conductive hydrogel (DMCH) with a silver-based elastic conductor (Ag-PU). This design addresses issues like skin irritation, unstable contact, and performance degradation over time, ensuring comfort and reliability for extended wear. The Hanyang University team, led by Professor Park Dong-wook, engineered an intelligent feedback control system. This system integrates real-time impedance measurement between the skin and electrodes, a sensing system based on clothing pressure, and an automatic voltage correction algorithm.

This intelligent control ensures consistent tactile stimulation regardless of individual body shapes, variations in wearing pressure, or changes in skin condition. The researchers validated the system's potential through experiments, including tactile feedback in VR environments and tremor reduction using electrical stimulation. The TESS system's ability to combine therapeutic functions with tactile interfaces positions it as a promising technology for future applications in digital therapeutics, neurorehabilitation, and brain-computer interfaces.

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In the future, we plan to further develop this system and expand it into a next-generation neural interface that integrates neural signal acquisition and tactile feedback.