We imagine equipping electronic skins with a sense of attention in order to operate more efficiently in resource constrained environments.
A dense sensate skin that is self-aware can transition between multiple diverse functions in service of both for humanistic and scientific aims based on local conditions and available power/compute resources.
(As of June 2020, this project is in concept / early prototype development stage. It is a new research effort, yet also serves as an extension to the SpaceSkin project)
Dense sensor networks incorporated onto electronic skins enable measurements across large and conformal areas. However, scaling this type of system poses fundamental challenges with respect to channel count, channel readout latency, data volume and system power consumption. These constraints become especially pronounced in remote and resource constrained environments from deep sea to deep space.
Requirements are also application specific, yet increasingly sensor networks are serving multiple functions at once.
We imagine incorporating a sense of attention into the skin that ca… View full description
We imagine equipping electronic skins with a sense of attention in order to operate more efficiently in resource constrained environments.
A dense sensate skin that is self-aware can transition between multiple diverse functions in service of both for humanistic and scientific aims based on local conditions and available power/compute resources.
(As of June 2020, this project is in concept / early prototype development stage. It is a new research effort, yet also serves as an extension to the SpaceSkin project)
Dense sensor networks incorporated onto electronic skins enable measurements across large and conformal areas. However, scaling this type of system poses fundamental challenges with respect to channel count, channel readout latency, data volume and system power consumption. These constraints become especially pronounced in remote and resource constrained environments from deep sea to deep space.
Requirements are also application specific, yet increasingly sensor networks are serving multiple functions at once.
We imagine incorporating a sense of attention into the skin that can be used to dynamically and intelligently mediate data acquisition. The attention model is driven by estimates for where interesting data is most likely to occur, as well as by the temporal and spatial resolution that is likely required in order to resolve this data.
Finally, various physical architectures for the skin system will be considered in order to promote efficient resource management across a multiface skin.
As a toy example: a spacecraft interested in detecting micrometeoroid impactors from the space-facing direction may concentrate its power and compute resources towards whichever region of skin is correctly oriented, even as the spacecraft performs various attitude maneuvers.