Human skin is a remarkable organ. It consists of an integrated, stretchable network of sensors that relay information about tactile and thermal stimuli to the brain, allowing us to maneuver within our environment safely and effectively. Interest in large-area networks of electronic devices inspired by human skin is motivated by the promise of creating autonomous intelligent robots and biomimetic prosthetics, among other applications. The development of electronic networks comprised of flexible, stretchable, and robust devices that are compatible with large-area implementation and integrated with multiple functionalities is a testament to the progress in developing an electronic skin (e-skin) akin to human skin. E-skins are already capable of providing augmented performance over their organic counterpart, both in superior spatial resolution and thermal sensitivity. They could be further improved through the incorporation of additional functionalities (e.g., chemical and biological sensing) and desired properties (e.g., biodegradability and self-powering). Continued rapid progress in this area is promising for the development of a fully integrated e-skin in the near future.

25th Anniversary Article: The Evolution of Electronic Skin (E-Skin): A Brief History, Design Considerations, and Recent Progress

Chainmail for catalysts: a catalyst with iron nanoparticles confined inside pea-pod-like carbon nanotubes exhibits a high activity and remarkable stability as a cathode catalyst in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), even in presence of SO(2). The approach offers a new route to electro- and heterogeneous catalysts for harsh conditions.

Iron Encapsulated within Pod‐like Carbon Nanotubes for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Review: Carbon nanotube based electrochemical sensors for biomolecules.

We propose a method of personal identification based on finger-vein patterns. An image of a finger captured under infrared light contains not only the vein pattern but also irregular shading produced by the various thicknesses of the finger bones and muscles. The proposed method extracts the finger-vein pattern from the unclear image by using line tracking that starts from various positions. Experimental results show that it achieves robust pattern extraction, and the equal error rate was 0.145% in personal identification.

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Feature extraction of finger-vein patterns based on repeated line tracking and its application to personal identification

Carbon nanotubes are promising materials for various applications. In recent years, progress in manufacturing and functionalizing carbon nanotubes has been made to achieve the control of bulk and surface properties including the wettability, acid–base properties, adsorption, electric conductivity and capacitance. In order to gain the optimal benefit of carbon nanotubes, comprehensive understanding on manufacturing and functionalizing carbon nanotubes ought to be systematically developed. This review summarizes methodologies of manufacturing carbon nanotubes via arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition and functionalizing carbon nanotubes through surface oxidation and activation, doping of heteroatoms, halogenation, sulfonation, grafting, polymer coating, noncovalent functionalization and nanoparticle attachment. The characterization techniques detecting the bulk nature and surface properties as well as the effects of various functionalization approaches on modifying the surface properties for specific applications in catalysis including heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis and electrocatalysis are highlighted.

Carbon nanotube catalysts: recent advances in synthesis, characterization and applications.

There are many types of biometric systems commercially available such as fingerprints, iris/retina and hand shape devices. Each of these systems has merits and demerits. In the case of fingerprints, direct contact of the finger with the fingerprint-image-extracting sensor causes degradation in performance, especially in factory construction sites where good-quality fingerprints are hard to obtain due to oil from the finger, moisture, dirt, etc. In the case of iris/retina scanners, users must place the eye close to the scanner, causing an uncomfortable feeling or privacy-infringing feeling. In the case of hand-shape recognizers, problems may arise with users who suffer from arthritis or rheumatism, so they are rarely used due to their poor performance [1,2]. The proposed method has been developed to resolve the problems stated above. Since it acquires a vein pattern image without direct contact with the hand or with the veinpattern-extracting sensor, there exists no contamination. Both user comfort and performance are improved, and stable operation is also expected. In this paper, a new, low-priced, biometric identification system using this new method is proposed. Also, if a conventional vein-pattern-extracting algorithm is to be realized, the use of a high-priced DSP (digital signal processor) is inevitable since the algorithm includes

An biometric identification system by extracting hand vein patterns

ZnO nanomaterials synthesized from thermal evaporation of ball-milled ZnO powders

Improved field emission properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with Ru nanoparticles

Structural and optoelectronic properties of SnO2 nanowires synthesized from ball-milled SnO2 powders

A new high speed, low power and small area CMOS current comparator based on a resistive feedback network is proposed. Simulation results employing 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS parameters demonstrate 7 ns response time and 0.45 mW power consumption for 0.1 /spl mu/A input current, which represents a /spl sim/400% improvement in power-delay product over existing current comparators. In this design, the bias current and the input impedance are well controlled parameters, and the inherent autozeroing scheme does not require any offset compensation.

Soo Won Kim

Papers

An biometric identification system by extracting hand vein patterns

ZnO nanomaterials synthesized from thermal evaporation of ball-milled ZnO powders

Improved field emission properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with Ru nanoparticles

Structural and optoelectronic properties of SnO2 nanowires synthesized from ball-milled SnO2 powders

High performance CMOS current comparator using resistive feedback network