Beyond displays: wearable liquid crystal devices for stimulus visualisation

Portable, intuitive wearable devices have been sought after in recent years. Despite the flexibility and miniaturization of current electronic devices, the power supply and complex structural design of electronic devices affect their wearing comfort.

Liquid crystal material itself can serve both sensing and display functions without energy consumption. In a review published in the KeAi journal Wearable Electronics, a group of researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai outlines the applications of liquid crystal materials in the wearable field in recent years, particularly in information visualisation. These liquid crystal material-based devices are able to change the shape or color of the pattern upon exposure to external stimul, giving the wearer visible and intuitive information.

"We expect liquid crystal materials to create value again in new fields," says one of the study's authors, Yang Xu. "Liquid crystals are known for their responsiveness to stimuli; however, they are also highly processable and can be designed in different forms, allowing them to remain responsive while being flexible enough to serve the wearer.”

At the same time, the liquid crystal material itself is able to visualize the stimuli it senses, such as a change in color or shape, without the need for additional power supply and analysis equipment, which is also a major advantage in the wearable field."

In the review, the authors outline a variety of wearable devices based on liquid crystal materials, covering applications in wearable visualisation sensors, wearable camouflage and shielding, anti-counterfeiting and information encryption, cellular wearable devices and integration with other wearable devices.

“Liquid crystal materials act as a bridge to connect optical signals and stimuli, transforming the unseen and untouchable signals into intuitive optical signals,” adds Xu. “These portable and compact devices can get out of the lab and into daily life, which is the future direction of wearable devices. In the future, by designing their structures, we believe liquid crystal materials will be able to sense more complex signals and display more refined patterns, adding to our smart devices.

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Contact the author: Yang Xu, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, email:yxu@tongji.edu.cn

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).