A Bioinspired Wireless Epidermal Photoreceptor for Smart UV Protection and Physiological Monitoring

Skin vision can be found in many invertebrates such as earthworms, jellyfish and octopuses using light-sensitive rod cells in the skin. It enables optical perception and colorimetric responses, providing intriguing capabilities that human skin does not have. We developed a bioinspired wireless, battery-free, artificial skin vision (ASV) device consisting of flexible optical and optoelectronic components which essentially mimic the hierarchical structures and biological functions of rod cells in a skin-like configuration for light sensing and signal processing. The ASV device showed sensitive colorimetric responses to input stimulus, such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and demonstrated a capacity for in situ quantitative analysis of biomarkers in sweat through alternative colorimetric light filters. Multiple ASVs together created a body area network with a collection of wireless sensors that can work in parallel to acquire multidimensional human physiological signals and predict fitness variations using a specified deep learning neural network. Our system has potential applications in biomimetic engineering, physiological monitoring and intelligent personalized diagnostics.