When people breathe, speak, sing or clear their throats, their bodies are in constant motion. Air flowing through the lungs, the oscillation of vocal folds in the throat and the rhythmic expansion of the chest all produce tiny vibrations that carry valuable information about physiology and health1. However, constructing a device that can capture all of these physiological signals has remained a challenge2. Writing in Nature Sensors, Cho et al.3 report a wearable vibration sensor that is made from an array of densely packed electrical components called capacitors, which generate electrical signals in response to vibration. The authors’ device overcomes several limitations of previous capacitor-based vibration sensors — it does not require an externally applied voltage, its electrical performance is stable when used on the skin and it can detect vibrations over a wide range of frequencies. This work establishes an improved way to use vibration sensing for personalized health-care monitoring and in devices that are operated by human voices.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
