Waterproof electronic glove to facilitate communication between divers

When divers have to say “I'm fine!” or “Shark!” to their diving buddies, they use hand signals to communicate visually. But sometimes these gestures are difficult to see. Now, researchers have built a waterproof “electronic glove” that wirelessly transmits hand gestures made underwater to a computer that translates them into messages. New technology could one day help divers communicate better with each other and with ship crews on the surface.

Electronic gloves (gloves equipped with electronic sensors that translate hand movements into information) are already in development, including designs that allow the user to interact with virtual reality environments or help people recovering from a stroke to recover fine motor skills.

However, it is a challenge to make the electronic sensors waterproof for use in a pool or ocean, while also making the glove flexible and comfortable to wear.

Therefore, the team led by Jiaxu Liu, from Qingdao University in China, set out to create an electronic glove capable of detecting hand movements when submerged underwater.

The researchers began by making waterproof sensors that rely on flexible microscopic pillars inspired by the tube-shaped feet of a starfish.

Using laser writing tools, they created an array of these micropillars on a thin film of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a waterproof plastic commonly used in contact lenses.

After coating the PDMS assembly with a conductive layer of silver, the researchers bonded two of the films together with the pillars facing inward to create a waterproof sensor.

The sensor (about the size of a USB-C port) responds when flexed and can detect a range of pressures comparable to the light touch of a dollar bill to the impact of water from a garden hose. The researchers wrapped 10 of these waterproof sensors in self-adhesive dressings and sewed them over the knuckles and first finger joints of the electronic glove prototype.

The new waterproof electronic glove will facilitate underwater communication for divers. (Image: adapted from ACS Nano 2024, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c13221)

To create a vocabulary of hand gestures for the researchers' demonstration, a participant wearing the electronic glove made 16 gestures, including “OK” and “Exit.” The researchers recorded the specific electronic signals generated by the electronic gloves' sensors for each corresponding gesture. They applied a machine learning technique to translate sign language into words to create a computer program that could translate the gestures of the electronic gloves into messages.

When tested, the program translated hand gestures made on land and underwater with 99.8% accuracy. In the future, the team says a version of this electronic glove could help divers communicate using visual hand signals, even when they can't see their diving buddies clearly.

Liu and his colleagues lay out the technical details of their glove in the academic journal ACS Nano, under the title “Underwater Gesture Recognition Meta-Gloves for Marine Immersive Communication.” (Source: American Chemical Society)