• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Departments
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
    • Aerospace program
    • Engineering Science program
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Commencement
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Space reservations
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Buildings & facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • New students
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • New students
    • Advising & counseling
    • ESS programs
    • CAEE academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • > Degree requirements
    • > Policies & procedures
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
    • Sustainability and resiliency
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > In touch with reality
Liwei Lin testing wearable sensor actuatorPhoto by Adam Lau / Berkeley Engineering

In touch with reality

Berkeley Engineer Spring 2020 magazine cover
April 14, 2020
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Spring 2020
  • In this issue

    Features

    Reinventing cybersecurity

    Learning to learn

    Super sand

    Dean’s note

    Upfront

    • Hey Jupiter
    • Double duty
    • Tough as scales
    • Grand designs
    • Good for the image
    • Quantum weirdness
    • In sync
    • In touch with reality

    New & noteworthy

    • Monteiro selected for elite engineering honor
    • Peterson honored as top engineer
    • Transferring excellence
    • Farewell

    Download this issue

  • Past issues

Today’s augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies simulate a vivid interactive experience by altering what users see and hear. But what if users could also feel their way through an experience?

A new flexible, wearable device developed by Berkeley researchers, led by mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin, could make this a reality. Their piezoelectret-based device, about 150 micrometers thick, is both a sensor and an actuator. Under mechanical deformation caused by human movements, the device’s sensor can generate electrical outputs without a power supply. These electrical outputs can then help turn on the actuator via electrostatic force to generate vibrations that can be felt by human skin. Currently, the device’s actuating mode can generate up to 20 meganewtons, comparable to the vibrations of a cellphone, and sense objects as light as a dandelion seed.

“There are many applications for this technology that can sense motion and give haptic feedback,” said Lin. “One application is AR/VR. Right now, if you are playing a game and hitting a wall, you only hear a sound. With our device, the sensor can detect if you are going to hit something, and the actuator can vibrate to simulate a physical impact.” Because the vibrations can be customized, this technology could also be used to help people with visual or hearing impairments interact with the world around them.

Topics: Devices & inventions, Mechanical engineering, Research
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • X logo
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2025 UC Regents