A self-filtering ultrasensitive liquid acoustic sensory system
Abstract
Acoustic sensing and noise management are vital for effective communication and information exchange, particularly for U.S. Navy sailors frequently exposed to high-intensity ambient noise. Such exposure can compromise mission success by diminishing situational awareness and potentially causing command misinterpretations. Wearable acoustic sensory systems play a crucial role in tactical communications with the ability to augment human auditory perception by increasing situational acoustic awareness, eliminating noise interference, and facilitating the comprehension of acoustic information. Conventional wearable acoustic sensors are made of solid materials and rely on the periodic deformation/vibration of the materials induced by sound pressure for acoustic sensing. For acoustic sensing, piezoelectric ceramic, polymer thin film, metal, and many other solid materials are widely explored and utilized by military members. However, the wide-range adoption of these sensors is largely shadowed by their low sensitivity, poor skin conformability, and limited pressure detection range, owing to the high mechanical hardness of the solid materials. To address these problems, we propose a game-changer strategy - developing a self-filtering, ultrasensitive liquid acoustic sensory system as a novel bio-interface that can gain unobtainable skin conformability, sensitivity, detection limit, and board sensing range in conventional solid acoustic sensors. Our proposed liquid acoustic sensory system is based on the PI s prior success in discovering the giant magnetoelastic effect in a soft system for tiny biomechanical pressure sensing (Nature Materials 2021) and the recently discovered permanent fluidic magnet (PFM) as a new type of material that exhibited high permanent magnetization and reconfigurability simultaneously. The proposed PFM-based liquid acoustic sensor eliminates the non-conformal acoustic coupling, achieving an acoustic impedance four orders lower than the solid counterparts. More importantly, the rheological properties of PFMs are tunable, allowing them to serve as a liquid acoustic filter that can selectively filter out mechanical noise, guaranteeing high-quality signals with minimal information loss. With the assistance of machine learning algorithms, the proposed liquid acoustic sensory system is expected to augment human auditory perception capabilities and reduce background noise caused by water currents, marine life, or other sources. This could enable advanced underwater acoustic communication, sonar systems, and oceanographic research. The overall achievement of this proposed project will be (1) discovering and studying a new class of liquid materials, PFM, that exhibit an exceptional combination of diverse magnetic functionalities and tunable rheological properties; (2) building up a novel liquid acoustic sensory system that could gain unobtainable skin conformability, sensitivity, detection limit, and board sensing range in conventional solid acoustic sensors. With the funding from ONR Young Investigator Program, successful deliverables of the self-filtering liquid acoustic sensory system will renovate current acoustic sensing systems as a transformative technology to augment the Navy s auditory perception capabilities with unprecedented performance, even in a noisy and underwater environment. Approved for Public Release
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 24, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412065
Entities
People
- Jun Chen
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, Los Angeles