CN113543698A

CN113543698A - Apparatus, system and method for user monitoring using electronic skin

Info

Publication number: CN113543698A
Application number: CN201880100656.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 何卓彪; 里敦; 邢峣; 袁明军; 陈义峰; 邓召辉; 尤进进
Original assignee: Wuhan United Imaging Zhirong Medical Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Wuhan United Imaging Zhirong Medical Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-12-13
Filing date: 2018-12-13
Publication date: 2021-10-22
Also published as: WO2020118598A1; EP3893738A4; EP3893738A1

Abstract

An electronic skin (150) is provided. The e-skin (150) may include a flexible substrate (153), one or more sensors (410), and a circuit (420). The flexible substrate (153) may have an upper surface (152), a lower surface (151) opposite the upper surface (152), a channel extending between the upper surface (152) and the lower surface (151), the lower surface (151) of the flexible substrate (153) being attachable to the skin of a subject. Each of the one or more sensors (410) may be configured to acquire an electrical signal indicative of a biological parameter of the subject, and the one or more sensors (410) may include at least a first sensor mounted on the lower surface (151) of the flexible substrate (153). The circuit (420) may be mounted on the upper surface (152) of the flexible substrate (153) and operatively coupled to the one or more sensors (410). The circuit (420) may be configured to receive one or more electrical signals from the one or more sensors (410) via a transmission medium that passes through the channels of the flexible substrate (153).

Description

Apparatus, system and method for user monitoring using electronic skin

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to user monitoring and, more particularly, to devices, systems, and methods for monitoring a user via electronic skin (e-skin).

Background

In a healthcare or medical system, it is often necessary to monitor a user continuously or periodically. For example, it may be desirable to continuously or periodically measure and monitor various biological parameters of the user, such as blood glucose, blood pressure, and/or heart activity. In recent years, electronic skins for user monitoring have been developed, which can be attached to the skin of a user to collect health information of the user. Typically, the electronic skin may be assembled from a plurality of components, such as a sensor, a flexible substrate, a battery, and circuitry. The characteristics and performance of the e-skin (e.g., flexibility and accuracy of the e-skin) may be affected by the configuration and arrangement of the components and the manner in which health information collected by the e-skin is processed. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a more efficient electronic skin device and a system and method for monitoring a user by means of the electronic skin device.

Disclosure of Invention

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic skin may include a flexible substrate, one or more sensors, and an electrical circuit. The flexible substrate may have an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and a channel extending between the upper surface and the lower surface, the lower surface of the flexible substrate being attachable to the skin of a subject. Each of the one or more sensors may be configured to acquire an electrical signal indicative of a biological parameter of the subject, and the one or more sensors may include at least one first sensor mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate. The circuitry may be mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate and operatively coupled with the one or more sensors, and the circuitry may be configured to receive one or more electrical signals from the one or more sensors via a transmission medium passing through the channel of the flexible substrate.

In some embodiments, the electronic skin may include a battery configured to power the circuit.

In some embodiments, the battery may be a coin cell battery including a foldable mechanism configurable to cause the coin cell battery to assume a folded configuration in which the coin cell battery is energized or an unfolded configuration in which the coin cell battery is not energized

In some embodiments, the one or more sensors may include at least one of a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a chemical sensor, an electrical sensor, an optical sensor, a motion sensor, or a thermal sensor.

In some embodiments, the one or more sensors may include at least one second sensor mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate.

In some embodiments, the one or more sensors include at least one electrode having a plurality of cycling cells electrically connected to each other.

In some embodiments, the transmission medium may comprise a plurality of interconnected circulation cells.

In some embodiments, the circuit may include a carrier generator, a modulator, and a synthesizer. The carrier generator may be configured to generate a plurality of carriers, each of which may have a frequency. The modulator may be configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to the one or more electrical signals by modulating each of the one or more electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers. The synthesizer may be configured to combine the one or more modulated signals.

In some embodiments, the carrier generator may include an oscillator configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency and a plurality of multipliers configured to generate a carrier based on the reference carrier. In some embodiments, the carrier may include an oscillator configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency and a plurality of frequency dividers configured to generate carriers from the reference carrier, each carrier having a frequency that is a fraction of the reference frequency.

In some embodiments, the circuitry may be further configured to generate a processing result by processing the one or more received electrical signals. The electronic skin may further include a communication interface operatively coupled to the circuitry, the communication interface configured to transmit at least a portion of the received one or more electrical signals or the processing results to a medical system.

In some embodiments, the flexible substrate may have a thickness of less than 30 microns.

In some embodiments, the flexible substrate may be made of at least one of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Nylon (Nylon), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyurethane (PU), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polyimide (PI), Polyacrylate (PA), or biopolymer.

In some embodiments, the electronic skin may further include an isolation layer between the circuit and the upper surface of the flexible substrate, the isolation layer being made of a heat-resistant material.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a medical system may include: at least one storage device comprising an instruction set to monitor a subject, at least one processor configured to communicate with the at least one storage device. When executing the set of instructions, the at least one processor may be configured to instruct the system to: receiving, over a network from an electronic skin (e-skin) attached to the skin of the subject, a first electrical signal acquired by the electronic skin relating to one or more biological parameters of the subject. The at least one processor may be further configured to determine information related to the object based on the first electrical signal. The e-skin may include a flexible substrate, one or more sensors, and circuitry. The flexible substrate may have an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and a channel extending between the upper surface and the lower surface. The lower surface of the flexible substrate is attachable to the skin of the subject. Each of the one or more sensors may be configured to acquire a second electrical signal that is characteristic of one of the one or more biological parameters of the subject. The circuitry may be mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate and operatively coupled with the one or more sensors, the circuitry may be configured to receive and process the one or more second electrical signals to generate the first electrical signals related to the one or more biological parameters of the subject. The one or more sensors may include at least one first sensor mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate and connected to the circuit by a transmission medium that may pass through the channel of the flexible substrate.

In some embodiments, the circuitry of the electronic skin may include a carrier generator, a modulator, and a synthesizer. The carrier generator may be configured to generate a plurality of carriers. The modulator may be configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more of the second electrical signals acquired by the one or more sensors by modulating each of the one or more of the second electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers. The synthesizer may be configured to generate an electrical signal corresponding to the first electrical signal by combining the one or more modulated signals.

In some embodiments, the e-skin may further include a button cell, which may include a foldable mechanism that may be configured to cause the button cell to assume a folded configuration in which the button cell may be energized or an unfolded configuration in which the button cell may be de-energized.

In some embodiments, the electronic skin further comprises a communication interface operably coupled to the circuitry, the communication interface configurable to transmit the first electrical signal to the medical system.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a method of determining information related to at least one object is implemented on a first computing device having one or more processors and one or more storage devices. The method may comprise: for each of at least one subject, receiving, from at least one electronic skin attached to the skin of the subject over a first network, a first electrical signal relating to one or more biological parameters of the subject acquired by the respective at least one electronic skin. The method may further include determining information related to the object based on the respective first electrical signals. The method may further include transmitting information related to the object to a terminal for display. The at least one electronic skin may include a flexible substrate, one or more sensors, and a circuit. The flexible substrate may have an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and a channel extending between the upper surface and the lower surface, the lower surface of the flexible substrate being attachable to the skin of the subject. Each of the one or more sensors may be configured to acquire a second electrical signal that is characteristic of one of the one or more biological parameters of the subject. The circuitry may be disposed on the upper surface of the flexible substrate and operatively coupled with the one or more sensors. The circuitry may be configured to receive and process the one or more second electrical signals to generate the first electrical signal related to the one or more biological parameters of the subject. The one or more sensors may include at least one first sensor disposed on the lower surface of the flexible substrate and connected to the circuit through a transmission medium. The transmission medium may pass through the channel of the flexible substrate.

In some embodiments, for each of the at least one subject, the method may further include transmitting, by the terminal, instructions to measure the one or more biological parameters of the subject to the circuit of the corresponding at least one electronic skin.

In some embodiments, the first network may be a wireless network.

In some embodiments, the at least one object may comprise a plurality of objects.

In some embodiments, the circuitry of the electronic skin may be further configured to transmit the one or more second electrical signals to a second computing device via a second network for processing. The circuitry of the electronic skin may be further configured to receive, from the second computing device via a second network, a result of the processing of the one or more second electrical signals. The circuitry of the electronic skin may be further configured to transmit the first electrical signal encoding the processing result to the first computing device via the first network.

In some embodiments, the second network may be a wireless network

In some embodiments, the circuitry of the electronic skin may further include a carrier generator, a modulator, and a synthesizer. The carrier generator may be configured to generate a plurality of carriers. The modulator may be configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more of the second electrical signals acquired by the one or more sensors by modulating each of the one or more electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers. The synthesizer may be configured to generate the first electrical signal by combining the one or more modulated signals.

In some embodiments, the e-skin may also include a button cell. The button cell may include a foldable mechanism that may be configured to cause the button cell to assume a folded configuration or an unfolded configuration. The button cell may be energized in the folded configuration. The button cell may be powered down in the unfolded configuration.

Additional features will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned from the practice or operation of the embodiments. The features of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the detailed description below.

Drawings

The present disclosure will be further described in terms of exemplary embodiments. The exemplary embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The figures are not drawn to scale. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplary embodiments, and like reference numerals represent similar structures throughout the several views, wherein:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary medical system, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/or software components of a computing device, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/or software components of a mobile device on which a terminal may be implemented according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary e-skin, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5A is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary e-skin side view, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5B is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary e-skin side view, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a cross-sectional schematic view illustrating a button cell in an unfolded configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

figure 7A is a schematic diagram illustrating a plurality of first sensors mounted on a lower surface of a flexible substrate of an e-skin, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 7B is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary electrodes mounted on a lower surface of a flexible substrate of an e-skin, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary circuit of an electronic skin, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is an exemplary circuit diagram of an exemplary circuit of an electronic skin, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example carrier generator, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary second modulator, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary circuit according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example processing device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

fig. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for determining information related to a user based on electronic skin, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant disclosure. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, systems, components, and/or circuits have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments of the invention. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the term "and/or" and at least one of "… includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "…," "includes" and/or "including …," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Furthermore, the term "exemplary" is intended to be exemplary or illustrative.

It should be understood that the terms "system," "engine," "unit," "module," and/or "block" as used herein are a way of distinguishing between different components, elements, parts, portions, or assemblies of different levels in ascending order. However, these terms may be substituted by other expressions if they achieve the same purpose.

Generally, the words "module," "unit," or "block" as used herein refers to logic embedded in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions. The modules, units, or blocks described herein may be implemented in software and/or hardware and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. In some embodiments, software modules/units/blocks may be compiled and linked into executable programs. It should be understood that software modules may be invoked from other modules/units/blocks or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events or interrupts. The software modules/units/blocks for execution on the computing device may be provided on a computer readable medium, such as a compact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, magnetic disk, or any other tangible medium, or downloaded as digital (and may be initially stored in a compressed or installable format, requiring installation, decompression, or decryption prior to execution). Such software code may be stored, in part or in whole, on a storage device executing the computing device for execution by the computing device. The software instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It should also be understood that the hardware modules/units/blocks may include connected logic components, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may be included in a programmable unit, such as a programmable gate array or a processor. The modules/units/blocks or computing device functions described herein may be implemented as software modules/units/blocks, but may be represented in hardware or firmware. Generally, a module/unit/block described herein refers to a logical module/unit/block that may be combined with other modules/units/blocks or may be partitioned into sub-modules/sub-units/sub-blocks, considering their physical organization or physical storage. The description may apply to the system, the engine, or a portion thereof.

It should be understood that as used in this disclosure, the terms "layer," "surface," "aperture," "channel," and the like refer to one or more components having one or more specific purposes. However, structures that may perform the same or similar functions as the components illustrated above or referenced elsewhere in this disclosure may be named differently from this disclosure.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments of the present invention.

Various terms (including "connected," "engaged," "interface," and "coupled") may be used to describe spatial and functional relationships between elements (e.g., between layers). Unless explicitly described as "direct," when a relationship between first and second elements is described in this disclosure, the relationship includes a direct connection relationship where no other intermediate element exists between the first and second elements, and also includes an indirect connection relationship where one or more intermediate elements (spatially or functionally) exist between the first and second elements. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly" connected, joined, interacting or coupled to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements (e.g., "between" and "directly between," "adjacent" and "directly adjacent," etc.) should be interpreted in a similar manner.

These and other features and characteristics of the present disclosure, as well as the methods of operation and functions of the related elements of the structure and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this disclosure. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the disclosure. It should be understood that the drawings are not to scale.

For purposes of illustration, the following description is provided to facilitate a better understanding of the conceptual processes. It should be understood that this is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the present disclosure that certain changes, variations and/or modifications may be made. Such changes, variations and/or modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.

The present disclosure relates to devices, systems, and methods for monitoring a user via electronic skin. The electronic skin may include a flexible substrate, one or more sensors, and circuitry. The flexible substrate may have an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and one or more channels extending between the upper surface and the lower surface. Each sensor may be configured to acquire an electrical signal that is characteristic of a biological parameter of the user. The circuitry may be configured to receive and/or process one or more electrical signals from one or more sensors. When the lower surface of the flexible substrate is attached to the skin of a user, the e-skin can acquire information of the user.

To improve the conformity between the e-skin and the user's skin, the circuit may be mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate. At least a first sensor of the one or more sensors may be mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate and electrically connected to the circuitry via a transmission medium that passes through the flexible substrate channel. In some embodiments, the first sensor may be thin (e.g., have a nanoscale thickness along a direction between the upper and lower surfaces) so as to have little effect on the conformity between the e-skin and the user's skin. On the other hand, the first sensor mounted on the lower surface may directly contact the user's skin, thereby improving the accuracy and effectiveness of the first sensor measurements.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary medical system 100, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Medical system 100 may include server 110, network 120, storage 130, terminal 140, and e-skin 150.

Medical system 100 may be configured to collect and/or analyze information related to a subject to monitor a condition of the subject. The object may include the user 160, a portion of the body of the user 160 (e.g., an organ and/or tissue of the user 160), a man-made object (e.g., a prosthesis), and so forth. For illustrative purposes, this disclosure takes user 160 as the object to be monitored. For example, the medical system 100 may continuously or intermittently (e.g., periodically) measure and/or analyze a plurality of biological parameters of the user 160. Medical system 100 may be used in a wide variety of fields, such as patient observation, patient monitoring, research, disease diagnosis, disease treatment, and the like, or any combination thereof. For example, a physician and/or physician may use the medical system 100 to assist in monitoring a patient's condition at a hospital or remotely, to discover dangerous conditions in a timely manner, to obtain long-term data, and the like, or combinations thereof.

The user 160 may be a patient, a study, etc. For example, the user 160 may be a human or an animal. For purposes of simplicity and illustration, the medical system 100 in fig. 1 shows only one user 160, but is not intended to be limiting. Medical system 100 may include multiple users 160 and may collect and analyze information related to multiple users 160 simultaneously.

Server 110 may facilitate data processing for medical system 100. In some embodiments, the server 110 may be a single server or a group of servers. The set of servers can be centralized or distributed (e.g., the servers 110 can be a distributed system). In some embodiments, the server 110 may be local or remote. For example, server 110 may access information and/or data stored in terminal 140 and/or storage 130 via network 120. As another example, server 110 may be directly connected to terminal 140 and/or storage 130 to access stored information and/or data. In some embodiments, the server 110 may be implemented on a cloud platform. By way of example only, the cloud platform may include a private cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributed cloud, an interconnected cloud, a multi-cloud, and the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the server 110 may be implemented on a computing device 200 containing one or more components shown in fig. 2 of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the server 110 may include a processing device 112. Processing device 112 may process information and/or data to perform one or more functions described in this disclosure. For example, the processing device 112 may receive electrical signals related to a biological parameter of the user 160 from the electronic skin 150 attached to the user 160. For simplicity, the electrical signals associated with the biological parameters of the user 160 may be referred to as electrical signals. As another example, the processing device 112 may process the electrical signals to determine information related to the user 160. For example, the processing device 112 may continuously receive electrical signals from the electronic skin 150 related to the heart activity of the user 160 and perform a dynamic Electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnosis based on the electrical signals. In holter diagnosis, the processing device 112 may analyze electrical signals associated with the user's cardiac activity over a period of time (e.g., 24 hours) and present the analysis by recording a holter of the electrical activity of the heart over the period of time of the user 160. Additionally or alternatively, the processing device 112 may predict the user's risk of having a certain disease (e.g., heart disease) by analyzing the electrical signals.

In some embodiments, the processing device 112 may include one or more processing devices (e.g., one or more single-core processing devices or one or more multi-core processors). For example only, the processing device 112 may include one or more hardware processors, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an application specific instruction set processor (ASIP), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Physical Processing Unit (PPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), a controller, a microcontroller unit, a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), a microprocessor, or the like, or any combination thereof.

Network 120 may facilitate the exchange of information and/or data. In some embodiments, one or more components in medical system 100 (e.g., server 110, storage 130, and terminal 140) may send information and/or data to one or more other components in medical system 100 via network 120. For example, processing device 112 may receive signals and/or information from electronic skin 150 via network 120. As another example, processing device 112 may transmit information related to one or more users 160 to terminal 140 via network 120. In some embodiments, the network 120 may be any type of wired or wireless network, or combination thereof. By way of example only, network 120 may include a cable network, a wired network, a fiber optic network, a telecommunications network, an intranet, the internet, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a bluetooth (TM) network, a ZigBee network, a Near Field Communication (NFC) network, the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, network 120 may include one or more network access points. For example, network 120 may include wired or wireless network access points, such as base stations and/or Internet exchange points 120-1, 120-2, … …, through which one or more components of medical system 100 may connect to network 120 to exchange data and/or information.

Storage 130 may store data and/or instructions. In some embodiments, storage device 130 may store data obtained from terminal 140 and/or processing device 112. For example, the storage device 130 may store electrical signals collected by the e-skin 150, information related to the user 160 determined by the processing device 112 or retrieved from a resource (e.g., identity information, medical history, work experience, education), etc., or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, storage 130 may store data and/or instructions that server 110 may perform or be used to perform the example methods described in this disclosure. For example, the storage device 130 may store instructions that the processing device 112 may execute or instructions for monitoring the user 160 based on the e-skin 150. In some embodiments, storage 130 may include mass storage, removable storage, volatile read-write memory, read-only memory (ROM), the like, or any combination thereof. Exemplary mass storage devices may include magnetic disks, optical disks, solid state drives, and the like. Exemplary removable storage devices may include flash drives, floppy disks, optical disks, memory cards, compact disks, magnetic tape, and the like. Exemplary volatile read and write memories can include Random Access Memory (RAM). Exemplary RAM may include Dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous double-data-rate dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM), Static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM), and zero-capacitance RAM (Z-RAM). Exemplary ROMs may include Mask ROM (MROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk ROM, and the like. In some embodiments, storage 130 may be implemented on a cloud platform. By way of example only, the cloud platform may include a private cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributed cloud, an interconnected cloud, a multi-cloud, and the like, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, storage 130 may be connected to network 120 to communicate with one or more components (e.g., server 110, terminal 140, etc.) in medical system 100. One or more components in medical system 100 may access data or instructions stored in storage 130 via network 120. In some embodiments, the storage device 130 may be directly connected or in communication with one or more components in the medical system (e.g., the server 110, the terminal 140, etc.). In some embodiments, storage 130 may be part of server 110.

In some embodiments, the terminal 140 may include a mobile device 140-1, a tablet 140-2, a laptop 140-3, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, mobile device 140-1 may include smart home devices, wearable devices, mobile devices, virtual reality devicesReal devices, augmented reality devices, and the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the smart home devices may include smart lighting devices, control devices for smart appliances, smart monitoring devices, smart televisions, smart cameras, interphones, and the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the wearable device may include a bracelet, footwear, glasses, helmet, watch, clothing, backpack, smart accessory, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the mobile device may include a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a gaming device, a navigation device, a point of sale (POS) device, a laptop, a desktop, etc., or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the virtual reality device and/or the augmented reality device may include a virtual reality helmet, virtual reality glasses, a virtual reality patch, an augmented reality helmet, augmented reality glasses, an augmented reality patch, and the like, or any combination thereof. For example, the virtual reality device and/or the augmented reality device may include a Google Glass^TM、RiftCon^TM、Fragments^TM、Gear VR^TMAnd the like.

In some embodiments, the terminal 140 may display information related to the user 160. For example, the terminal 140 may display a biometric parameter value of the user 160 received from the electronic skin 150 and/or the processing device 112. In some embodiments, the terminal 140 may control the operation of one or more components of the medical system 100 (e.g., the e-skin 150). For example, a user may set an operating mode and/or operating parameters of the e-skin 150 via the terminal 140. Exemplary modes of operation may include continuous/intermittent acquisition and/or transmission of data, processing of data, display of data, the like, or combinations thereof. Exemplary operating parameters may include a frequency of acquiring and/or transmitting data, a trigger event for displaying particular data, and the like, or combinations thereof. For example, information relating to blood oxygen levels of user 160 is continuously measured by electronic skin 150 according to a set of operating parameters in a particular operating mode; if it is determined that the measured blood oxygen level is within the normal range, information is periodically (e.g., hourly, daily, etc.) transmitted to terminal 140 for display and/or transmission to processing device 112; but is immediately sent if it is determined that the measured blood oxygen level is outside of the normal range. Additionally or alternatively, if blood oxygen level is determined to be within the normal range, then electronic skin 150 may display the measured blood oxygen level; if the blood oxygen level is outside the normal range, a warning notification is also displayed. In some embodiments, the terminal 140 may be integrated into the e-skin 150. For example, the terminal 140 may be a control panel mounted on the e-skin 150 and configured to perform the functions of the terminal 140 disclosed in this disclosure.

E-skin 150 may be configured to collect and/or process information related to user 160. For example, the electronic skin 150 may acquire one or more electrical signals that characterize one or more biological parameters of the user. Exemplary biological parameters of the user 160 may include pulse rate, heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, blood glucose level, blood pressure, parameters related to cardiac activity (e.g., ECG parameters), parameters related to brain activity (e.g., electroencephalogram (EEG) parameters), parameters related to muscle activity (e.g., Electromyogram (EMG) parameters), and the like, or any combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, the e-skin 150 may further process the acquired electrical signals. By way of example only, the electronic skin 150 may analyze electrical signals that characterize a biological parameter of the user 160 to determine a value of the biological parameter. As another example, the electronic skin 150 may combine a plurality of electrical signals that characterize a plurality of biological parameters to generate a combined signal.

During operation, the e-skin 150 may be attached to the skin of the user 160, as shown in fig. 1, to gather information related to the user 160. In some embodiments, the e-skin 150 may be attached to different parts of the user's skin depending on the type of biological parameter or parameters to be measured. For example, the electronic skin 150 may be attached to the wrist of the user 160 to measure the pulse rate, blood glucose level, and/or blood pressure of the user 160. As another example, the e-skin 150 may be attached to the chest of the user 160 to measure the breathing rate and/or heart rate of the user 160. In some embodiments, multiple (pieces of) e-skin 150 may be provided at multiple locations of user 160 to collect information related to the user simultaneously. For example, a plurality (plurality) of electronic skins 150 may be respectively disposed on the forearm, wrist, ankle, and chest of the user 160 to simultaneously acquire an electrocardiogram signal of the user 160.

In some embodiments, the e-skin 150 may include a flexible substrate, one or more sensors, circuitry, a battery, a communication interface, and/or input/output (I/O) components. More description of the e-skin 150 may be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See, for example, fig. 4-14 and the description thereof.

It should be noted that the medical system 100 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Various changes or modifications may be made by those skilled in the art in light of the teachings of the present disclosure. However, such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the medical system 100 may include a first treatment device and a second treatment device (one or both of which may be a treatment device 112 as shown in fig. 1, although only one treatment device 112 is shown in fig. 1) to collectively or individually perform the methods disclosed in the present disclosure. By way of example only, the first processing device may be configured to receive information related to the user 160 from the e-skin 150 and optionally process the received information. If the amount of information received is greater than a threshold and/or the type of information is greater than a threshold, the first processing device may transmit at least a portion of the information to the second processing device for further analysis. In some embodiments, the second processing device may process information received from the first processing device and transmit the processing results back to the first processing device. In some embodiments, the first processing device may be local and the second processing device may be implemented on a cloud platform.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of exemplary hardware and/or software components of a computing device 200, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Computing device 200 may be configured to implement any of the components of medical system 100 described in the present disclosure. For example, the server 110 (e.g., the processing device 112) may be implemented on the computing device 200 by its hardware, software programs, firmware, or a combination thereof.

The processor 210 may execute computer instructions (e.g., program code) and perform functions of the processing device 112 in accordance with the techniques described in this disclosure. The computer instructions may include, for example, routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, and functions that perform the particular functions described herein. In some embodiments, processor 210 may include one or more hardware processors, such as microcontrollers, microprocessors, Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), application specific instruction set processors (ASIP), Central Processing Units (CPU), Graphics Processing Units (GPU), Physical Processing Units (PPU), microcontroller units, Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), advanced RISC processors (ARM), Programmable Logic Devices (PLD), any circuit or processor capable of executing one or more functions, or the like, or any combination thereof.

For illustration only, only one processor is depicted in computing device 200. It should be noted that the computing device 200 in the present disclosure may also include multiple processors. Thus, operations described in this disclosure as being performed by one processor and/or operations of the method may also be performed by multiple processors, either collectively or individually. For example, if in the present disclosure the processors of computing device 200 perform operation a and operation B simultaneously, it should be understood that operation a and operation B may also be performed jointly or separately by two or more different processors in computing device 200 (e.g., a first processor performing operation a, a second processor performing operation B, or a first and second processor performing operations a and B together).

Memory 220 may store data/information obtained from e-skin 150, server 110, storage 130, terminal 140, and/or any other component of medical system 100. In some embodiments, memory 220 may include mass storage devices, removable storage devices, volatile read-write memory, read-only memory (ROM), or the like, or any combination thereof. For example, mass storage devices may include magnetic disks, optical disks, solid state drives, and the like. The removable storage device may include a flash memory drive, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a memory card, a compact disc, a magnetic tape, etc. The volatile read and write memory may include Random Access Memory (RAM). RAM may include Dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous double-data-rate dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM), Static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM), zero-capacitance RAM (Z-RAM), and the like. The ROM may include Masked ROM (MROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk ROM, and the like. In some embodiments, memory 220 may store one or more programs and/or instructions to perform the example methods described in this disclosure.

I/O230 may input and/or output signals, data, information, and the like. In some embodiments, I/O230 may enable a user to interact with medical system 100. In some embodiments, I/O230 may include input devices and output devices. Examples of input devices may include a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, microphone, etc., or a combination thereof. Examples of output devices may include a display device, speakers, a printer, a projector, etc., or a combination thereof. Examples of display devices may include Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), Light Emitting Diode (LED) based displays, flat panel displays, curved screens, television devices, Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), touch screen screens, and the like, or combinations thereof.

Interface communication 240 may be connected to a network (e.g., network 120) to facilitate data communication. Communication interface 240 may establish a connection between two or more components of medical system 100. The connection may be a wired connection, a wireless connection, any other communication connection capable of enabling the transmission and/or reception of data, and/or any combination of these connections. The wired connection may include, for example, an electrical cable, an optical cable, a telephone line, etc., or any combination thereof. The wireless connection may include, for example, Bluetooth^TMConnection, Wi-Fi^TMConnection, WiMax^TMConnection, WLAN connection, ZigBee^TMConnections, mobile network connections, etc. (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G), or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the communication interface 240 may be and/or include a standardized communication interface, such as RS232, RS485, and the like. In some embodiments, the communication interface 240 may be a specially designed communication interface. For example, communication interface 240 may be in accordance with a medical figureImaging and Communications (DICOM) protocol.

Fig. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of exemplary hardware and/or software components of a mobile device on which terminal 140 may be implemented, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 3, mobile device 300 may include communication interface 310, display 320, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)330, Central Processing Unit (CPU)340, I/O device 350, memory 360, and storage 390. CPU 340 may include interface circuitry and processing circuitry similar to processor 210. In some embodiments, any other suitable component, including but not limited to a system bus or a controller (not shown), may also be included in the mobile device 300. In some embodiments, the operating system 370 is mobile (e.g., iOS)^TM、Android^TM、WindowsPhone^TMEtc.) and one or more application programs 380 may be loaded from storage 390 into memory 360 for execution by CPU 340. The application 380 may include a browser or any other suitable mobile application for receiving and providing information related to query requests, or receiving and providing other information from a data storage system on the mobile device 300. User interaction with the information flow may be accomplished through the I/O device 350 and provided to the processing device 112 and/or other components of the medical system 100 via the network 120. For example, I/O device 350 may display user (e.g., user 160) information (e.g., values of a biological parameter) received from an electronic skin (e.g., electronic skin 150) and/or a processing device (e.g., processing device 112).

To implement the various modules, units and their functionality described above, a computer hardware platform may be used as the hardware platform for one or more elements (e.g., components of computing device 200 depicted in fig. 2). Since these hardware elements, operating systems, and programming languages are conventional, it can be assumed that those skilled in the art may be familiar with these techniques, and that they are able to provide the information needed for health monitoring in accordance with the techniques described in this disclosure. A computer with a user interface may be used as a Personal Computer (PC), or other type of workstation or terminal device. Suitably programmed, a computer with a user interface may act as a server. It is believed that one skilled in the art may be familiar with these structures, programs, or general operations of such computer devices. Therefore, no additional explanation is made to this drawing.

Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary e-skin 150, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. E-skin 150 may be attached to the skin of user 160 to collect and/or process information related to user 160. As shown in fig. 4, e-skin 150 may include a flexible substrate 153, one or more sensors 410, circuitry 420, a battery 430, a communication interface 440, and input/output (I/O) components 450. For simplicity, circuitry 420, battery 430, communication interface 440, and I/O components 450 may be referred to as electronic components of electronic skin 150.

Flexible substrate 153 may be configured to support one or more other components of e-skin 150, such as sensor 410, circuitry 420, battery 430, interface communication 440, and I/O components 450. In some embodiments, the flexible substrate 153 may include a lower surface 151, an upper surface 152 opposite the lower surface 151, and one or more channels (not shown in fig. 4). Each of the one or more channels may extend between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151.

As used herein, the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153 may refer to the surface of the flexible substrate 153 that is attached to the user 160 when the e-skin 150 acquires information related to the user 160. In some embodiments, the flexible substrate 153 may comprise a single layer flexible substrate. The upper surface 152 may refer to a surface of the flexible substrate 153 opposite the lower surface 151. The channel of the flexible substrate 153 may be a through hole on the flexible substrate 153. In some embodiments, the flexible substrate 153 may include multiple layers of overlapping flexible substrates. In this case, the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate 153 may refer to an outermost surface of the flexible substrate 153 opposite to the lower surface 151. The size and/or material of the different layers of the flexible substrate may be the same or different. The layers of the flexible substrate 153 may include one or more through holes. The channels of the flexible substrate 153 may pass through the through-holes of each layer. More description of the flexible substrate 153 structure and one or more channels may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure. See fig. 5A and 5B and their description.

The flexible substrate 153 may be flexible and/or stretchable. When attached to the skin of the user 160, the flexible substrate 153 may conform to the body surface of the user 160. In some embodiments, the flexible substrate 153 may be made of one or more flexible and/or stretchable materials. For example, the flexible substrate 153 may be made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polymethacrylate (PMMA), Nylon (Nylon), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyurethane (PU), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polyimide (PI), Polyacrylate (PA), biopolymer, etc., or any combination thereof. Exemplary biohigh polyesters can include polyglycolic acid (PGA), polylactic acid (PLA), polysaccharides (polysaccharides), proteins, and the like, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153 may be attached to the skin of the user 160 in any suitable manner. For example, the flexible substrate 153 may be made into a sheet so that the flexible substrate may be directly attached to the skin by an electrostatic force between the flexible substrate 153 and the skin. As used herein, when the thickness of the flexible substrate 153 in the direction between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151 is less than a first threshold, the flexible substrate 153 may be considered as a sheet. The first threshold may be, for example, 5 micrometers (um), 10um, 20um, 30um, or any other suitable value. For example only, the first threshold may be 20 um.

Additionally or alternatively, the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153 may be attached to the skin of the user 160 by one or more adhesive materials, such as acrylic-based adhesives, polyisobutylene-based adhesives, silicone-based adhesives, polyester-based adhesives, polyurethane-based adhesives, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, an adhesive material may be applied to the lower surface 151 during the manufacturing of the flexible substrate 153. In some embodiments, when the thickness of the flexible substrate 153 in the direction between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151 is equal to or greater than the second threshold, the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153 may be attached to the skin of the user 160 by one or more adhesive materials. The second threshold may be, for example, 50um, 60um, 70um, 100um, or any other suitable value. For example only, the second threshold may be 50 um.

Each of the one or more sensors 410 may be configured to acquire an electrical signal that is characteristic of a biological parameter of the user 160. The biological parameter may be any parameter for measuring a physical function of the user 160 (e.g., heart activity, brain activity, and/or muscle activity). The one or more sensors 410 may be various types of sensors, such as physical, chemical, and/or electrical sensors, and the like, or any combination thereof. Exemplary physical sensors may include, but are not limited to, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, optical sensors, motion sensors, and/or thermal sensors. Exemplary chemical sensors may include, but are not limited to, a blood sensor (e.g., a blood glucose sensor), a sweat sensor, and/or a urine sensor. Different types of sensors 410 may acquire electrical signals that are characteristic of the same type or different types of biological parameters. For example, the pressure sensor may be configured to measure, for example, blood pressure, pulse, heart rate, respiration rate, or the like, or any combination thereof. The chemical sensor may be configured to measure, for example, blood glucose concentration, sweat urea concentration, or any other parameter of user 160 that is related to chemical information (e.g., composition of a body fluid, presence of an element, concentration of an element in a body fluid). The electrical sensor may be configured to detect electrical changes on the skin of the user that may be caused by, for example, cardiac activity, brain activity, or muscle activity. Exemplary biological parameters measured by the electrical sensor may include ECG parameters, EEG parameters, EMG parameters, the like, or any combination thereof. The optical sensor may be configured to measure, for example, a blood oxygen level of the user 160, a change in volume of blood (e.g., a blood flow rate), etc., or any combination thereof. The motion sensor may be configured to measure position, velocity, acceleration, or any other parameter associated with the motion of the user 160, or a portion thereof. The thermal sensor may be configured to measure body temperature, or any other parameter associated with thermal information of the user 160.

In some embodiments, the configuration and/or composition of the sensor 410 may be adjusted according to the function of the sensor 410. For example only, the blood glucose sensor may include a microneedle, wherein when the electronic skin 150 is attached to the user's skin, the microneedle punctures the user's skin to detect blood of the user 160. As another example, the pressure sensor may be made of one or more nanostructured materials, such as piezoelectric materials, metal nanowires, metal oxide nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and graphene. As yet another example, the electrical sensor may be made of piezoelectric material, electrodes, e.g., metal wires (e.g., gold, silver, or copper wires), conductive ink, etc., or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the electrodes may be formed as metal lines having a thickness along a direction extending between the lower surface 151 and the upper surface 152 that is less than a threshold value, such as 10 nanometers, 20 nanometers, 30 nanometers, or any other suitable value. In some embodiments, the electrodes may have a self-similar structure (e.g., the structure shown in fig. 7B).

The electrode having a self-similar structure may include a plurality of circulation cells, each circulation cell having the same or substantially the same shape and being electrically connected to each other. The self-similar structure can improve the resistance of the electrode to a certain degree of deformation within the fracture stress limit of the constituent materials of the electrode. Further description of the electrode structure may be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See fig. 7A and 7B and their associated description.

Circuitry 420 may process information and/or data to perform one or more functions described in this disclosure. In some embodiments, the circuitry 420 may be operably coupled to each of the one or more sensors 410 and configured to receive and/or process one or more electrical signals from the one or more sensors 410. For example, the circuit 420 may pre-process (e.g., filter and/or denoise) one or more electrical signals. As another example, circuitry 420 may determine information related to user 160 by analyzing one or more electrical signals. For example only, the circuit 420 may determine whether a value of a biological parameter is within a normal range by analyzing an electrical signal that is characteristic of the biological parameter. In some embodiments, circuitry 420 may also transmit the one or more electrical signals and/or the results of the processing of the one or more electrical signals to one or more other components of e-skin 150, such as communications interface 440, I/O component 450, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, circuitry 420 may include processing circuitry configured to process signals, data, and/or instructions to perform one or more particular functions described herein. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may include one or more hardware processors, such as analog signal processing circuitry, digital signal processing circuitry, mixed signal processing circuitry, and/or any circuitry or processor capable of performing one or more of the functions illustrated herein, or any combination thereof. Exemplary analog signal processing circuits may include amplifiers, mixers, Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs), filters, Radio Frequency (RF) receivers, RF transmitters, and the like, or any combination thereof. Exemplary mixed signal processing circuits may include analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and the like, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, circuit 420 may include a carrier generator, a first modulator, a combiner (combiner), and a second modulator. The circuit 420 may receive multiple electrical signals from the multiple sensors 410 and generate a combined signal by processing the electrical signals. Further description of the generation of the combined signal may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure (e.g., fig. 8-12 and descriptions thereof).

Battery 430 may be configured to provide power to one or more components of e-skin 150 (e.g., circuitry 420). The battery 430 may be a button cell, a paper cell, a solar cell, an electrochemical cell, a supercapacitor, a piezoelectric cell, etc., or any combination thereof. For example, the battery 430 may be a button battery. The button cell may have one or more advantages including, for example, having a high energy density and a small size. Optionally, the button cell may include a foldable mechanism configured to adjust the configuration and state of the button cell. More description about button cells can be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See fig. 5A and 6 and their associated description.

As another example, the battery 430 may be a paper battery. In some embodiments, battery pads may be mounted on the flexible substrate 153, and the batteries 430 may be mounted on the battery pads by a conductive liquid (e.g., liquid silver). As yet another example, the battery 430 may be a chemical battery that includes an electrolyte (e.g., a NaCl solution). In some embodiments, the electrolyte may be encased in an electrolyte pack, which may be placed inside the flexible substrate 153 (e.g., between two layers of flexible substrate 153). In some embodiments, battery 430 may be omitted and one or more components of e-skin 150 (e.g., circuitry 420) may be charged via a wireless antenna through a wireless powering technique.

Interface communication 440 may be connected to a network (e.g., network 120) to facilitate data communication. Communication interface 440 may establish a connection between e-skin 150 and one or more other components of medical system 100 (e.g., processing engine 112). The connection may be a wired connection, a wireless connection, any other communication connection capable of enabling data transmission and/or reception, and/or any combination of these connections.

In some embodiments, communication interface 440 may be operatively coupled to circuitry 420. Circuitry 420 may transmit at least a portion of the electrical signals acquired by one or more sensors 410 and/or transmit the results of the processing of one or more electrical signals to communication interface 440. Communication interface 440 may further transmit the received one or more electrical signals and/or processing results to one or more other components of medical system 100 (e.g., processing device 112, storage device 130). In some embodiments, e-skin 150 may receive information, data, and/or signals from one or more other components of system 100 via communication interface 440. For example, e-skin 150 may receive control instructions (e.g., user instructions received from terminal 140) via communication interface 440.

The I/O component 450 may be configured to input or output signals, data, or information. For example, the I/O component 450 may enable a user to control the e-skin 150, for example, by setting an operating state and/or operating parameters of the e-skin 150. As another example, the I/O component 450 may display a value of a biological parameter of the user 160 measured by the sensor 410. As yet another example, when sensor 410 and/or circuitry 420 detect that the value of the biometric parameter exceeds a normal level, I/O component 450 may provide an alert to user 160 and/or one or more other local or remote users of medical system 100 (e.g., doctors, nurses, entity 160 monitoring user 160). In some embodiments, I/O components 450 may include input devices and output devices. Exemplary input devices may include a keyboard, touch screen, microphone, etc., or a combination thereof. Exemplary output devices may include a display device, speakers, printer, projector, etc., or a combination thereof.

The components of e-skin 150 may be disposed in any suitable manner at any location on flexible substrate 153. In some embodiments, one or more electronic components (e.g., circuit 420 and battery 430) may have a thickness along a direction extending between upper surface 152 and lower surface 151 to ensure proper performance of signal transmission and energy storage. These components may be mounted on the upper surface 152 to improve compliance between the e-skin 150 and the user's skin. In some embodiments, the electronic components may be mounted directly or indirectly on the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate 153. Different electronic components may be mounted on the upper surface 152 in the same or different manners.

Taking circuit 420 as an example, it may be directly bonded or wire bonded to upper surface 152 based on, for example, a bonding technique or a wire bonding technique (e.g., gold wire bonding). As another example, the circuit 420 may be indirectly mounted on the upper surface 152 via one or more adhesive materials, such as glue. As yet another example, e-skin 150 may also include an isolation layer between circuitry 420 and upper surface 152. The isolation layer may be made of a heat-resistant material, such as Polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and cold-rolled steel Sheet (SPC). In some embodiments, an isolation layer may be adhered to upper surface 152, and circuitry 420 may be soldered or wire bonded to the isolation layer.

In some embodiments, one or more first sensors (e.g., first sensors 410-A1-410-An) may be mounted on the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153. In some embodiments, the one or more first sensors may be thin (e.g., having a nanoscale thickness along a direction extending between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151), which has little effect on the conformity between the e-skin 150 and the user's skin. Furthermore, the one or more first sensors mounted on the lower surface 151 may directly contact the user's skin, which may improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the one or more first sensor measurements.

Additionally or alternatively, one or more second sensors 410-B may be mounted on the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate 153. The one or more first sensors and/or the one or more second sensors 410-B may be any type of sensor, such as a pressure sensor, an optical sensor, or an electrical sensor. In some embodiments, certain types of sensors may have to be in contact with the skin of the user 160 to acquire electrical signals that characterize a particular biological parameter of the user 160. For example, a blood glucose sensor may need to be disposed on the lower surface 151 to act as a first sensor to measure a blood glucose level in the blood of the user 160. In some embodiments, sensor 410 may be mounted on lower surface 151 or upper surface 152 by any suitable technique, such as spin coating, dip coating, screen printing, transfer coating, sputtering, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, or the like, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, one or more components of the e-skin 150 may be connected to and/or in communication with each other via a transmission medium 460. For example, the e-skin 150 may include at least one first sensor (e.g., first sensors 410-A1-410-An) mounted on the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate 153. The at least one first sensor may be operatively coupled to one or more other components (e.g., circuitry 420) mounted on the upper surface 152 via a transmission medium 460 (not shown in fig. 4). The transmission medium 460 may pass through the channel of the flexible substrate 153. More description of the connection between the first sensor and the components mounted on the upper surface 152 may be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See, for example, fig. 5A and 5B and their associated description. As another example, as shown in fig. 4, two or more components mounted on the upper surface 152 (e.g., the second sensor 410-B, the circuit 420, the battery 430, the communication interface 440, and the I/O component 450) may be operatively coupled to one another via a transmission medium 460.

In some embodiments, the transmission medium 460 may include, for example, metal wires (e.g., gold, silver, and copper wires), conductive ink, or any other medium that can transmit signals and/or data. The transmission medium 460 may have any suitable configuration. The configuration and/or composition of the various transmission media 460 connecting the different components of the e-skin 150 may be the same or different. In some embodiments, the transmission medium 460 may have a self-similar structure (e.g., the structure shown in fig. 7B). The transmission medium 460 having a self-similar structure may include a plurality of circulation units each having the same or substantially the same shape and connected to each other. The self-similar structure may increase the tolerance of the transmission medium 460 to deformation to a certain level within the limits of the fracture strain of the constituent materials of the transmission medium 460. Further description of the structure of the transmission medium 460 may be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See fig. 7B and its associated description.

It should be noted that the embodiment shown in fig. 4 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many changes and modifications may be made which do not depart from the scope of the disclosure. In some embodiments, the e-skin 150 may include any number (or number) of sensors 410 or electronic components. One or more sensors 410 or electronic components may be disposed anywhere on the flexible substrate 153 in any suitable manner. In some embodiments, one or more components of e-skin 150 may be omitted. For example, any of the second sensors 410-B, I/O component 450 and/or battery 430 may be omitted. As another example, some or all of the transmission medium 460 shown in fig. 4 may be omitted. In some embodiments, e-skin 150 may also include one or more additional components. For example, e-skin 150 may also include a memory for storing data, signals, and/or instructions, such as storing electrical signals acquired by sensor 410 and/or data generated by circuitry 420.

In some embodiments, one or more surfaces of the flexible substrate 153 may be coated with one or more particular materials. For example, the lower surface 151 and/or the upper surface 152 may be coated with a sealant such as epoxy or silicone to improve the waterproof property of the e-skin 150. As another example, the lower surface 151 may be coated with a pharmaceutical material that releases a pharmaceutical agent, such as an antibiotic, beta-blocker (beta-blocker), angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, diuretic or steroid, essential oil, fragrance, deodorant, insect repellant, for purposes such as reducing skin irritation, providing therapy, or sensation. In some embodiments, one or more components of the e-skin 150 may be connected and/or communicate with each other via a bus in a manner similar to that shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 5A is a schematic diagram illustrating a side view of an exemplary e-skin 150-1, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 5B is a schematic diagram illustrating a side view of an exemplary e-skin 150-2, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, e-skins 150-1 and 150-2 may be examples of e-skin 150 or a portion thereof. E-skins 150-1 and 150-2 may be similar to each other, with the exception of certain features.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the e-skin 150-1 may include a flexible substrate 153-A, two first sensors (i.e., first sensor 410-A1 and first sensor 410-A2), a circuit 420, and a button cell 580. As shown in FIG. 5B, the e-skin 150-2 may include a flexible substrate 153-B, two first sensors (i.e., first sensor 410-A3 and first sensor 410-A4), and a circuit 420. The flexible substrate 153-a of the e-skin 150-1 may comprise a single layer of flexible substrate. The flexible substrate 153-B of the e-skin 150-2 may include two layers of overlapping flexible substrates (i.e., a first layer 153-B1 and a second layer 153-B2). Both flexible substrate 153-a and flexible substrate 153-B may have an upper surface 152, a lower surface 151, and a plurality of channels 510 (e.g., channels 510-1 through 510-4). The channel 510 may extend between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151. The first sensors (e.g., the first sensor 410-A1 through the first sensor 410-A4) may be mounted on the lower surface 151. The circuitry 420 and button cell 580 (if present) may be mounted on the upper surface 152.

The first sensor may be operatively coupled to the circuit 420 via a transmission medium 460 (shown in phantom in fig. 5A and 5B). The transmission medium 460 may pass through the channel 510 of the flexible substrate 153-a or the flexible substrate 153-B. As used herein, channel 510 may refer to a passage for a transmission medium 460 to extend between the upper surface 152 and the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate. For a flexible substrate having a single layer (e.g., flexible substrate 153-a), channel 510 may be a through hole on the flexible substrate. For a multi-layer flexible substrate (e.g., flexible substrate 153-B), each layer may include one or more vias. The channel 510 may pass through a through hole of the flexible substrate of each layer. Optionally, the channel 510 may also extend over the interface between two layers of flexible substrate. The flexible substrate 153-B including the multi-layer flexible substrate may provide more space to dispose one or more channels 510 than the flexible substrate 153-a, so that more transmission medium 460 may be used to connect the sensor 151 on the lower surface and other components on the upper surface 152. As used herein, a via of a flexible substrate may refer to a hole through the flexible substrate (or a flexible substrate layer) in a direction between lower surface 151 and upper surface 152. The through-hole may be located anywhere in the flexible substrate (or flexible substrate layer). The through-holes may be of any size and/or shape. The size and/or shape of the through holes may be the same or different. For example, the cross-section of the through-hole may be circular, triangular, rectangular or square in shape. As another example, the through-holes may be straight or curved along a direction between the lower surface 151 and the upper surface 152.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, channels 510-1 and 510-2 may be through-holes extending between lower surface 151 and upper surface 152. The first sensor 410-A1 may be mounted on the lower surface 151 to cover the channel 510-1. The transmission medium 460 used to connect the first sensor 410-a1 and the circuit 420 may extend from the first sensor 410-a1, through the channel 510-1 to point a on the upper surface 152, and then from point a to the circuit 420. The first sensor 410-a2 may be mounted on the lower surface 151 at a distance from the channel 510-2. The transmission medium 460 used to electrically connect the first sensor 410-A2 and the circuit 420 may extend from the first sensor 410-A2 to point b on the lower surface 151, through the channel 510-2 to point c on the upper surface 152, and then from point c to the circuit 420.

As another example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the first layer 15-B1 of the flexible substrate 153-B may include three through-holes 560-1 through 560-3, each of the through-holes 560-1 through 560-3 extending between the lower surface 151 and the interface 520 between the first layer 153-B1 and the second layer 153-B2. Second layer 153-B2 may include vias 560-4 and 560-5, each of vias 560-4 and 560-5 extending between contact surface 520 and upper surface 152. The channels of the flexible substrate 153-B may extend through the through-holes of each layer and optionally on the contact surface 520. For example, channel 510-3 may pass through via 560-3 and via 560-5. As another example, the channel 510-4 may pass through the through hole 560-1 and the through hole 560-4 and also extend over the contact surface 520 (e.g., from a 'point to B' point, as shown in FIG. 5B). The first sensor 410-A3 may be mounted on the lower surface 151 to cover the through hole 560-1 and the through hole 560-2. The transmission medium 460 used to connect the first sensor 410-A3 and the circuit 420 may extend from the first sensor 410-A3, through the through hole 560-1 to point a ', from point a ' to point b ' on the contact surface 520, through the through hole 560-4 to point c ' on the upper surface 152, and then from point c ' to the circuit 420. The first sensor 410-a4 may be mounted on the lower surface 151 at a distance from the through hole 560-3. The transmission medium 460 used to connect the first sensor 410-a4 and the circuit 420 may extend from the first sensor 410-a4 to a point d ' on the lower surface 151, through the via 560-3 and the via 560-5 to a point e ' on the upper surface 152, and then from the point e ' to the circuit 420.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 5A, a button cell 580 may include an upper pad 530, a lower pad 540, and a folding mechanism 570. The lower pad 540 may be mounted on the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate 153-a, and the button cell 580 may be mounted on the lower pad 540. The upper gasket 530 may be mounted on the folding mechanism 570. Lower pad 540 and upper pad 530 may be electrically connected to the anode and cathode, respectively, of button cell 580. The folding mechanism 570 may be configured to cause the button cell 580 to assume a folded configuration or an unfolded configuration. In the folded configuration as shown in fig. 5A, the upper gasket 530 may contact the button cell 580 to establish a connection between the anode and cathode of the button cell 580 so that the button cell 580 may be energized. In the unfolded configuration, the upper gasket 530 may not contact the button cell 580, and the anode and cathode of the button cell 580 are not connected to each other. In this case, the button cell 580 will be powered down. In some embodiments, the foldable mechanism 570 may be attached to the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate in an unfolded configuration.

It should be noted that the embodiments shown in fig. 5A and 5B are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Various changes and modifications can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the teachings of the present disclosure. However, such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, e-skin 150-1 and/or e-skin 150-2 may include any suitable number(s) of first sensors or other electronic components. Flexible substrate 153-a and/or flexible substrate 153-B may include any suitable number (number) of channels 510 and/or layers of flexible substrates. In some embodiments, the first sensor is operatively coupled to the circuit 420 via a transmission medium 460 through the channel 510. For example, the first sensor 410-A3 is operatively coupled to the circuit 420 via a transmission medium 460 through a channel 510 of the flexible substrate 153-B. As another example, the first sensor 410-A3 may be operatively coupled to the circuit 420 via two transmission mediums 460, each of which may traverse the same or different channels, e.g., via two transmission mediums 460 through vias 560-1 and 560-2, respectively.

Fig. 6 illustrates a cross-sectional schematic view of a button cell in an unfolded configuration, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 6, the folding mechanism 570 of the button battery 580 is shown in phantom. In the unfolded configuration, the foldable mechanism 570 may be attached to the upper surface 152 of the flexible substrate 153. The upper pad 530 mounted on the folding mechanism 570 can be separated from the lower pad 540 mounted on the flexible substrate 153 so that the button cell 580 will be powered down. In some embodiments, the upper pad 530 and/or the lower pad 540 of the button cell 580 may be connected to one or more other components of the e-skin 150 (e.g., the circuit 420) by way of the power cord 610. When the folding mechanism 570 is folded, the button battery 580 may be powered and power the other components through the power cord 610.

It should be noted that the embodiment shown in fig. 6 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the upper and

lower pads

530 and 540 may be mounted anywhere on the button cell 580. For example, the upper and

lower pads

530, 540 can be mounted on the same side of the button cell 580 (e.g., the side adjacent the upper surface 152). Additionally or alternatively, the anode and cathode of the button cell can be mounted on the same side of the button cell 580 (e.g., the side adjacent to the upper surface 152). In some embodiments, the operational state of the button battery 580 may be controlled by other mechanisms (e.g., a switch) besides the foldable mechanism 570.

Fig. 7A is a schematic diagram illustrating a plurality of first sensors mounted on a lower surface 151 of a flexible substrate of an e-skin 150, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7A, the plurality of first sensors may be arranged in an array. The array may include multiple columns of first sensors (e.g., n columns of first sensors as shown in fig. 7A) and multiple rows of first sensors (e.g., m rows of first sensors as shown in fig. 7A). Each column or row may contain the same number of first sensors or a different number of first sensors. It should be noted that the example shown in fig. 7A is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. The e-skin 150 may include any number of first sensors mounted on the lower surface 151. The one or more first sensors may be disposed at any location of the lower surface 151. The first sensors may be the same type or different types of sensors.

Fig. 7B is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary electrode 700 mounted on the lower surface 151 of the flexible substrate of the e-skin 150, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in connection with fig. 4, electrodes 700 (e.g., electrode 700A and electrode 700B) may be electrical sensors configured to detect changes in electrical signals (e.g., changes in current, changes in voltage) on the skin of a user that may be due to, for example, cardiac activity, brain activity, or muscle activity. As shown in fig. 7B, the electrode 700A and the electrode 700B may have a self-similar structure including a plurality of circulation units 720, and each circulation unit 720 may have the same or substantially the same shape (e.g., a curved shape) and be electrically connected to each other. The circulation unit 720 may be circularly arranged to form a petal-type electrode. In some embodiments, the iterative design of the looping unit 720 may increase the stretchability of the electrode 700, such that the electrode 700 remains operably attached to the user's skin even if the e-skin 150 or coating 700 is twisted, stretched, or twisted.

In some embodiments, electrodes 700 (e.g.,

electrodes

700A and 700B) may be operably coupled to one or more other components of e-skin 150 (e.g., circuit 420) that are mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate. For example, as shown in fig. 7B, an exemplary transmission medium 460 may extend from an electrode 700A to a channel 710A of the flexible substrate and through the channel 710A to another component mounted on the upper surface. Similar to the electrode 700, the portion of the transmission medium 460 extending above the lower surface 151 may also have a self-similar structure, including a plurality of circulation cells 740 that are identical or substantially identical in shape. The portion of the transmission medium 460 extending into the channel 710A may have the same or different structure as the portion extending over the lower surface 151.

In some embodiments, because the electrode 700 may be made of a conductive material, the electrode 700 itself may extend into a channel of the flexible substrate to establish an electrical connection between the electrode 700 and one or more other components mounted on the upper surface. For example, as shown in fig. 7B, the electrode 700B may extend into a channel 710B of the flexible substrate. The portion of electrode 700 extending along channel 710B may serve as a transmission medium configured to electrically connect electrode 700B with other components. The portion of electrode 700B extending into channel 710B and the portion of electrode 700B extending over lower surface 151 may have the same or different configurations. For example, the portion of electrode 700B extending into channel 710B may be configured as a wire.

It should be noted that the embodiment shown in fig. 7B is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. The electrode 700 and/or the transmission medium 460 may have any self-similar structure, such as a von Koch curve structure, a Peano curve structure, a Hilbert curve structure, a Moore curve structure, a vicseek fractal structure, or a greenk intersection structure. The electrodes 700 and/or the transmission medium 460 may be identical or different in structure. The circulation unit 720 (or 740) shown in fig. 7B is for illustrative purposes only, and any other unit repeatedly appearing in the electrode 700 (or the transmission medium 460) may be regarded as one circulation unit of the electrode 700 (or the transmission medium 460).

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary circuit 800 of an electronic skin, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 9 is an exemplary circuit diagram of a circuit 800 of an electronic skin according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, circuit 800 may be an example of circuit 420 or a portion of circuit 420.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, circuit 800 may be operatively coupled to one or more sensors (e.g., sensors 410-1 through 410-n) of the e-skin and/or communication interface 440. The circuit 800 may receive one or more electrical signals from one or more sensors and be configured to generate a combined signal based on the received one or more electrical signals. The combined signal may be transmitted to one or more other components of medical system 100 via communication interface 440. In some embodiments, communication interface 440 may be an antenna capable of establishing a wireless connection between the electronic skin and one or more other components of medical system 100.

Circuit 800 may include a carrier generator 801, a first modulator 802, a synthesizer 803, and a second modulator 804. Carrier generator 801 may be configured to generate multiple carriers. Each of the plurality of carriers may have a frequency. In some embodiments, different carriers may have different frequencies, such that the different carriers may be transmitted over a single transmission medium without interfering with each other.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 9, carrier generator 801 may include an oscillator 905 (e.g., a ring oscillator) and one or more frequency multipliers (e.g., frequency multiplier 904-1 through frequency multiplier 904-n). The oscillator 905 may be configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency, which may be input into a frequency multiplier. Each frequency multiplier may be configured to generate a carrier wave having a frequency that is a multiple of the reference frequency. The frequency of the carrier generated by the frequency multiplier may be any multiple of the reference frequency. For example, the oscillator 905 may generate a reference carrier with a reference frequency of 1kHz, while the frequency multiplier may generate multiple carriers with frequencies of 2kHz, 3kHz, 4kHz, 5kHz, 6kHz, etc. As another example, the frequency multipliers 904-1 to 904-n may generate carriers having frequencies twice, four times, … …, and 2n times the reference frequency, respectively, as shown in fig. 9. In some embodiments, carrier generator 801 may include an oscillator and a frequency divider, as described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 10. In some embodiments, the oscillator 905 may include a harmonic oscillator (e.g., a feedback oscillator, a negative resistance oscillator), a relaxation oscillator (e.g., a ring oscillator), a voltage controlled oscillator (VOC), the like, or any combination thereof.

First modulator 802 may be configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more electrical signals acquired by one or more sensors (e.g., sensors 410-1 through 410-n). For brevity, one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more electrical signals may be referred to as a modulated signal. In some embodiments, first modulator 802 may generate one or more modulated signals by modulating an electrical signal on a carrier. The first modulator 802 may modulate an electrical signal on a carrier based on one or more modulation techniques (e.g., amplitude modulation techniques, frequency modulation techniques, and/or phase modulation techniques).

In some embodiments, first modulator 802 may include one or more mixers (e.g., mixers 902-1 to 902-n), as shown in fig. 9. The mixer may correspond to one sensor and a frequency multiplier. The mixers may be configured to generate the modulated signals by mixing the electrical signals received from the respective sensors with carrier signals generated by the respective frequency multipliers. For example, sensors 410-1 to 410-n may acquire a plurality of ECG signals having frequencies in the range of 0.05Hz to 150 Hz. The frequency multipliers 904-1 to 904-n may generate a plurality of carriers having frequencies of 2kHz, 3kHz, 4kHz, 5kHz, and 6 kHz. Mixers 902-1 through 902-n may modulate each ECG signal on each carrier separately.

The synthesizer 803 may be configured to generate a combined signal by combining one or more modulated signals. The combiner 803 may include an amplifier, a combiner (e.g., a dual-band combiner, a tri-band combiner, other multi-band combiners), or any other device that may combine signals, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the synthesizer 803 may be an amplifier 907, as shown in fig. 9.

The second modulator 804 may be configured to generate a modulated combined signal by modulating the combined signal on a high frequency (e.g., a frequency greater than a frequency threshold) carrier. For example, the frequency threshold may be 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 20MHz, 200MHz, etc. In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 9, the second modulator 804 may include a mixer 903, a frequency synthesizer 906, and an amplifier 908. Frequency synthesizer 906 may be configured to generate a high frequency carrier. The mixer 903 may generate a modulated combined signal by modulating the combined signal on a high frequency carrier. Amplifier 908 may amplify the modulated combined signal. In some embodiments, the amplified modulated combined signal may make the modulated combined signal more suitable for wireless transmission. In some embodiments, the second modulator 804 may include a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) and an amplifier, the description of which may be found elsewhere in this disclosure. See fig. 11 and its description.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example carrier generator 801, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, carrier generator 801 may include an oscillator 905 and a frequency divider 1001. The oscillator 905 may be configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency. The frequency divider 1001 may be configured to generate one or more carriers (e.g., a first carrier, a second carrier, … …, and an nth carrier) based on a reference carrier. The frequency of each carrier may be a fraction of a reference frequency (e.g., 1/2, 1/10, 1/20). For example, oscillator 905 may generate one reference carrier with a reference frequency of 100kHz, and frequency divider 1001 may generate multiple carriers with frequencies of 10kHz, 20kHz, 25kHz, and 50 kHz.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary second modulator 804, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 11, the second modulator 804 may include a voltage controlled oscillator 1101 and an amplifier 908. The voltage controlled oscillator 1101 may be configured to process the combined signal generated by the synthesizer 803 to generate a modulated combined signal having a particular frequency (e.g., a high frequency higher than a frequency threshold). Amplifier 908 may amplify the modulated combined signal.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example circuit 1200, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Circuit 1200 may be similar to circuit 900 described in fig. 9, except that the functions of carrier generator 801 and first modulator 802 may be implemented by one or more voltage controlled circuits. As shown in fig. 12, circuit 1200 may include a plurality of VCOs 1201-1 to 1201-n. The VCO may be configured to generate a plurality of modulation signals corresponding to the electrical signals acquired by the sensor. The modulation signals may have different frequencies. Each VOC may correspond to a sensor and be configured to process the electrical signal generated by the corresponding sensor to generate a modulated signal having a particular frequency.

It should be noted that the embodiments in fig. 8-12 are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Many variations and modifications are possible to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the teachings of the present disclosure. However, such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more components of circuit 800 and/or circuit 1200 may be omitted. For example, the second modulator 804 in the circuit 800 and/or in the circuit 1200 may be omitted. In some embodiments, components of circuit 800 and/or circuit 1200 may be implemented by other electronic elements than those described above. By way of example only, carrier generator 801 may also be implemented by an electronic component that may generate a plurality of carriers of different frequencies, rather than by oscillator 905, a frequency multiplier, or a frequency divider.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example processing device 112 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 13, the processing device 112 may include an obtaining module 1301, a determining module 1302, and a transmitting module 1303. These modules may be hardware circuitry of at least a portion of the processing device 112. These modules may also be implemented as an application or set of instructions that are read and executed by the processing device 112. Further, these modules may be any combination of hardware circuitry and applications/instructions. These modules may be part of the processing device 112, for example, when the processing device 112 executes an application or set of instructions.

Acquisition module 1301 may be configured to acquire information and/or signals related to one or more components of medical system 100 (e.g., user 160). For example, the acquisition module 1301 may acquire a first electrical signal related to one or more biological parameters of the user 160 from the electronic skin 150. In some embodiments, the e-skin 150 may acquire and process one or more second electrical signals related to one or more biological parameters of the user 160 and generate a first electrical signal encoding the processing result. Further description of the acquisition of the first electrical signal may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure. See operation 1401 and its description.

The determination module 1302 may be configured to determine information related to the user 160 based on the first electrical signal. In some embodiments, the information may include any information that displays the health of the user 160 or a portion of the user's 160 body (e.g., an organ). More description of determining information related to a user based on a first electrical signal may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure. See operation 1402 and its associated description.

The transmission module 1303 may be configured to transmit information and/or instructions to other components of the medical system 100, such as the e-skin 150 and the terminal 140. For example, the transmitting module 1303 may transmit the information related to the user 160 determined by the determining module 1302 to the terminal 140 for display.

It should be noted that the above description of the processing device 112 is for illustration only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Many variations and modifications are possible to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the teachings of the present disclosure. However, such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the processing device 112 may include a memory module configured to store data generated by the modules of the processing device described above. As another example, one or more modules may be integrated into a single module to perform its functions. For example only, the obtaining module 1301 and the determining module 1302 may be integrated into one module to obtain and analyze information.

Fig. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for determining information related to a user based on electronic skin, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more operations of the process 1400 shown in fig. 14 may be implemented in the medical system 100 shown in fig. 1. For example, the process 1400 shown in fig. 14 may be stored in a storage device (e.g., the storage device 130, the memory 220, and/or the memory 390) in the form of instructions and invoked and/or executed by the processing device 112.

In 1401, the processing device 112 (e.g., the acquisition module 1301) may receive one or more first electrical signals related to a biological parameter of a user (e.g., the user 160) from an electronic skin (e.g., the electronic skin 150) over a first network (e.g., the network 120). When the e-skin 150 is attached to the skin of the user 160, the e-skin 150 may acquire a first electrical signal. The one or more biological parameters may include any parameter for measuring a physical function of the user 160.

In some embodiments, e-skin 150 may include flexible substrate 153, one or more sensors 410, circuitry 420, and/or other suitable components (e.g., battery 430, communication interface 440, and/or I/O components 450). Each sensor 410 may be configured to acquire a second electrical signal that is characteristic of a biological parameter of the user 160. The circuitry 420 may receive and/or process the one or more second electrical signals to generate a first electrical signal related to one or more biological parameters of the user. The first electrical signal may be transmitted to the acquisition module 1301, for example, through the communication interface 440 and the network 120.

In some embodiments, circuitry 420 may perform one or more processing operations on one or more second electrical signals and generate a first electrical signal encoding the processing results. Exemplary processing operations may include signal preprocessing (e.g., filtering and/or denoising), signal analysis, signal synthesis, signal combination, signal transformation, signal modulation, and the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the first electrical signal may be a combined signal generated based on a plurality of second electrical signals. Circuit 420 may include one or more components similar to circuit 800 and/or circuit 1200 to modulate and/or combine the second electrical signal. For example, circuitry 420 may include a carrier generator, a modulator, and a synthesizer. The carrier may generate carriers having different frequencies. By modulating each of the one or more second electrical signals on each of the plurality of carriers, the modulator may generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to the one or more second electrical signals. The synthesizer may combine the one or more modulated signals to generate a combined signal. The combined signal may be the first electrical signal or an electrical signal corresponding to the first electrical signal (e.g., an electrical signal that may be further processed (e.g., filtered) to generate the first electrical signal). In some embodiments, the circuit 420 may analyze the one or more second electrical signals and generate a first electrical signal encoding the analysis results. For example only, the circuit 420 may process the second electrical signal indicative of the biological parameter acquired by the sensor 410 to determine a value of the biological parameter. The circuit 420 may then generate a first electrical signal encoding a value of the biological parameter of the user 160.

In some embodiments, the circuitry may transmit the one or more second electrical signals to a computing device (e.g., a server or a cloud processing device) (e.g., a processing device other than processing device 112) for processing via a second network (e.g., network 120) (e.g., a wireless network). The second network and the first network may be the same network or may be different networks. The circuitry may receive the processing results of the one or more second electrical signals from the computing device over the second network. The circuitry may also transmit a first electrical signal encoding the processing result to the processing engine 112 via the first network.

In some embodiments, the acquisition module 1301 may receive the first electrical signal from the e-skin 150 continuously or intermittently (e.g., periodically). Additionally or alternatively, the e-skin 150 may continuously or intermittently (e.g., periodically) transmit the first electrical signal to a storage device (e.g., storage device 130, memory 390) via the network 120. The acquisition module 1301 may access the storage device to acquire the first electrical signal.

At 1402, the processing device 112 (e.g., the decision block 1302) may determine information related to the user 160 based on the first electrical signal. In some embodiments, the information may include any information that displays the health of the user 160 or a portion of the user 160 (e.g., an organ). For example, the decision module 1302 may determine a brain condition of the user 160 by analyzing a first electrical signal related to an EEG parameter. As another example, the determination module 1302 may receive the first electrical signal continuously or intermittently (e.g., periodically) over a period of time. The determination module 1302 may analyze the first electrical signal to determine a change in a health condition of the user 160 or a portion of the user 160.

In some embodiments, the first electrical signal may be a combined signal of the modulated second electrical signal, as described in connection with operation 1401. The determining module 1302 may extract the modulated second electrical signal from the first electrical signal and demodulate the modulated second electrical signal to generate a second electrical signal. The determination module 1302 may also determine information related to the user 160 based on the second electrical signal.

In 1403, the processing device 112 (e.g., the transmission module 1303) can transmit information related to the user (e.g., the user 160) to the terminal (e.g., the terminal 140) for display. In some embodiments, the processing device 112 may transmit information related to the user 160 to the terminal 140 via the network 120. The terminal 140 may display and/or output information related to the user in the form of text, graphics, audio, video, etc., or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the terminal 140 may include a user interface configured to enable a user to interact with one or more other components of the medical system 100. For example, the user interface of the terminal 140 can display information 160 received from the e-skin 150 and/or the processing engine 112 that is relevant to the user. Exemplary information displayed by the user interface may include values of the user's 160 biological parameters, results of an analysis related to the user's 160 condition (e.g., a determination of whether the user's 160 biological parameter values are within a normal region, a predicted risk of the user 160 having a certain disease, a treatment recommendation with respect to the user 160), and the like, or any combination thereof.

Additionally or alternatively, the user interface may receive information and/or instructions entered by the user 160. For example, the instructions may be used to set and/or change an operating mode and/or operating parameters of the e-skin 150. For example only, the user 160 may input instructions to the e-skin 150 to increase the frequency of acquisition of blood glucose levels in response to the results of an analysis of the blood glucose value of the user 160 outside of a normal range. As another example, the instructions may be used to control the type of information and/or manner of information displayed by the terminal 140.

It should be noted that the above description of the process 1400 is for illustration only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the teachings of the present disclosure by those of ordinary skill in the art. However, such changes and modifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, circuitry 420 may transmit the one or more second electrical signals acquired by one or more sensors 410 to acquisition module 1301 without processing the second electrical signals. In some embodiments, the one or more sensors 410 of the e-skin 150 may transmit the one or more second electrical signals directly to the acquisition module 1301. In some embodiments, flow 1400 may include one or more additional operations, and/or one or more of the operations of flow 1400 described above may be omitted. For example, operation 1403 may be omitted.

In some embodiments, in operation 1401, the processing device 112 may receive a plurality of first electrical signals related to one or more biological parameters of the user 160 from a plurality of electronic skins 150 attached to the user 160. The plurality of electronic skins 150 may be configured to measure at least one of one or more biological parameters of the user 160. In some embodiments, process 1400 may be performed simultaneously for multiple users 160. For example, the e-skin 150 may be attached to each of a plurality of users 160. For each user 160, the processing device 112 may receive a first electrical signal from the corresponding electronic skin 150 that is related to one or more biological parameters of the user 160. The processing device 120 may determine information related to each user 160 based on the corresponding first electrical signal and transmit the information related to the user 160 to the terminal for display.

With the basic concepts thus described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the present detailed disclosure that it is intended that the foregoing detailed disclosure be presented by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Various changes, improvements and modifications may occur to those skilled in the art, though not expressly stated herein. Such alterations, improvements, and modifications are intended to be suggested by this disclosure, and are within the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure.

Furthermore, certain terminology is used to describe embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the terms "one embodiment," "an embodiment," and "some embodiments" mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Therefore, it is emphasized and should be appreciated that two or more references to "an embodiment" or "one embodiment" or "an alternative embodiment" in various portions of this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined as suitable in one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that aspects of the disclosure may be illustrated and described in the present disclosure in a number of patentable categories or contexts, including any new and useful processes, machines, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful modifications thereof. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied entirely in hardware, entirely in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or in a combination of software and hardware, which may be referred to herein collectively as a "module," unit, "" component, "" apparatus, "or" system. Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer-readable media having computer-readable program code embodied thereon.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including electromagnetic, optical, and the like, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on a computer readable signal medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C + +, C #, VB.NET, Python, etc., a conventional procedural programming language such as the "C" programming language, Visua Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl, COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP, a dynamic programming language such as Python, Ruby, and Groovy, or other programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet service provider), or in a cloud computing environment, or as a service provider, such as software as a service (SaaS).

Furthermore, the enumerated use of processing elements or order of processing, or numbers, letters, or other designations, is not intended to limit the claimed processes and methods to any order except as specified in the claims. While the foregoing disclosure discusses, by way of various examples, various useful embodiments of the present disclosure that are presently considered to be illustrative, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the appended claims are not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, are intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the disclosed embodiments. For example, while an implementation of the various components described above may be embodied in a hardware device, it may also be implemented as a purely software solution, such as an installation on an existing server or mobile device.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the foregoing description of embodiments of the disclosure, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure aiding in the understanding of one or more embodiments. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, the claimed subject matter recites less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment.

Claims

1. An electronic skin (e-skin) comprising:

a flexible substrate having an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and a channel extending between the upper surface and the lower surface, the lower surface of the flexible substrate being attachable to the skin of a subject;

one or more sensors, each of the one or more sensors configured to acquire an electrical signal representative of a biological parameter of the subject, the one or more sensors including at least one first sensor mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate; and

an electrical circuit mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate and operatively coupled with the one or more sensors, the electrical circuit configured to receive one or more electrical signals from the one or more sensors via a transmission medium passing through the channel of the flexible substrate.

2. The electronic skin of claim 1, further comprising: a battery configured to power the circuit.

3. The electronic skin of claim 2, wherein:

the battery is a button battery that includes a foldable mechanism configured to cause the button battery to assume a folded configuration in which the button battery is energized or an unfolded configuration in which the button battery is de-energized.

4. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a chemical sensor, an electrical sensor, an optical sensor, a motion sensor, or a thermal sensor.

5. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors include at least a second sensor mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate.

6. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one electrode having a plurality of cycling cells electrically connected to each other.

7. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the transmission medium comprises a plurality of circulation cells connected to one another.

8. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the circuit further comprises:

a carrier generator configured to generate a plurality of carriers, each of the plurality of carriers having a frequency;

a modulator configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to the one or more electrical signals by modulating each of the one or more electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers; and

a synthesizer configured to combine the one or more modulated signals.

9. The electronic skin of claim 8, wherein the carrier generator further comprises:

an oscillator configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency and a plurality of frequency multipliers configured to generate a carrier based on the reference carrier; or

An oscillator configured to generate a reference carrier having a reference frequency and a plurality of frequency dividers configured to generate carriers from the reference carrier, each of the carriers having a frequency that is a fraction of the reference frequency.

10. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein:

the circuit is further configured to generate a processing result by processing the received one or more electrical signals, and

the electronic skin further includes a communication interface operatively coupled to the circuitry, the communication interface configured to transmit at least a portion of the one or more electrical signals or the processing result to a medical system.

11. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the flexible substrate has a thickness of less than 30 microns.

12. The electronic skin of claim 1, wherein the flexible substrate is made of at least one of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Nylon (Nylon), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyurethane (PU), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polyimide (PI), Polyacrylate (PA), or biopolymer.

13. The electronic skin of claim 1, further comprising: an isolation layer between the circuit and the upper surface of the flexible substrate, the isolation layer being made of a heat resistant material.

14. A medical system, comprising:

at least one storage device comprising a set of instructions for monitoring a user; and

at least one processor configured to communicate with the at least one storage device, the at least one processor configured to, when executing the set of instructions, instruct the system to:

receiving, over a network from an electronic skin (e-skin) attached to a skin of a subject, a first electrical signal acquired by the electronic skin relating to one or more biological parameters of the subject; and

determining information related to the subject based on the first electrical signal, wherein the electronic skin comprises:

a flexible substrate having an upper surface, a lower surface opposite the upper surface, and a channel extending between the upper surface and the lower surface, the lower surface of the flexible substrate being attachable to the skin of the subject;

one or more sensors, each of the one or more sensors configured to acquire a second electrical signal,

the second electrical signal is characteristic of one of the one or more biological parameters of the subject; and

an electrical circuit mounted on the upper surface of the flexible substrate and operatively coupled with the one or more sensors, the electrical circuit configured to receive and process one or more of the second electrical signals to generate the first electrical signals related to the one or more biological parameters of the subject;

wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one first sensor mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate and connected to the electrical circuit by means of a transmission medium passing through the channel of the flexible substrate.

15. The medical system of claim 14, wherein the circuitry of the electronic skin further comprises:

a carrier generator configured to generate a plurality of carriers;

a modulator configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more of the second electrical signals acquired by the one or more sensors by modulating each of the one or more of the second electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers; and

a synthesizer configured to generate an electrical signal corresponding to the first electrical signal by combining the one or more modulated signals.

16. The medical system of claim 14, wherein:

the electronic skin also includes a button cell including a foldable mechanism configured to cause the button cell to assume a folded configuration in which the button cell is powered on or an unfolded configuration in which the button cell is powered off.

17. The medical system of claim 14, wherein the electronic skin further comprises a communication interface operatively coupled to the circuit, the communication interface configured to transmit the first electrical signal to the medical system.

18. A method of determining information related to at least one object, the method being implemented on a first computing device having one or more processors and one or more storage devices, the method comprising:

for each of the at least one object,

receiving, from at least one electronic skin (e-skin) attached to the skin of the subject, a first electrical signal related to one or more biological parameters of the subject acquired by the corresponding at least one electronic skin through a first network;

determining information related to the object based on the corresponding first electrical signal; and

transmitting the information related to the object to a terminal for display;

wherein the electronic skin comprises:

one or more sensors, each of the one or more sensors configured to acquire a second electrical signal, the second electrical signal characterizing one of the one or more biological parameters of the subject; and

wherein the one or more sensors include at least one first sensor mounted on the lower surface of the flexible substrate and coupled to the circuitry by means of a transmission medium passing through the channel of the flexible substrate.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

for each of the at least one subject, transmitting, by the terminal, instructions for measuring the one or more biological parameters of the subject to the circuit of the corresponding at least one electronic skin.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first network is a wireless network.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one object comprises a plurality of objects.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the circuit of the electronic skin is further configured to:

transmitting the one or more second electrical signals to a second computing device via a second network for processing;

receiving a result of processing of one or more of the second electrical signals from the second computing device via the second network; and

transmitting the first electrical signal encoding the processing result to the first computing device via the first network.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the second network is a wireless network.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the circuit of the electronic skin further comprises:

a carrier generator configured to generate a plurality of carriers;

a modulator configured to generate one or more modulated signals corresponding to one or more of the second electrical signals acquired by the one or more sensors by modulating each of the one or more electrical signals on one of the plurality of carriers; and

a synthesizer configured to generate the first electrical signal by combining the one or more modulated signals.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein: