Adhesive and Hydrophobic Bilayer Hydrogel Enabled On-Skin Biosensors for High-Fidelity Classification of Human Emotion

Traditional human emotion recognition is based on electroencephalogram (EEG) data collection technologies which rely on plenty of rigid electrodes and lack anti-interference, wearing comfort, and portability. Moreover, a significant distribution difference in EEG data also results in low classification accuracy. Here, on-skin biosensors with adhesive and hydrophobic bilayer hydrogel (AHBH) as interfaces for high accuracy emotion classification are proposed. The AHBH achieves remarkable adhesion (59.7 N m(-1)) by combining the adhesion mechanism of catechol groups and electrostatic attraction. Meanwhile, based on the synergistic effects of hydrophobic group rearrangements and surface energy reduction, the AHB-hydrophobic layer exhibits 133.87 degrees water contact angles through hydrophobic treatment of only 0.5 h. Hydrogen and electrostatic bonds are also introduced to form a seamless adhesive-hydrophobic hydrogel interface and inhibit adhesion attenuation, respectively. With the AHBH as an ideal device/skin interface, the biosensor can reliably collect high-quality electrophysiological signals even under vibration, sweating, and long-lasting monitoring condition. Furthermore, the on-skin electrodes, data processing, and wireless modules are integrated into a portable headband for EEG-based emotion classification. A domain adaptive neural network based on the transfer learning technique is introduced to alleviate the effect of domain shift and achieve high classification accuracy.

Automated summary

In this study, a skin-adhesive biosensor with a bilayer hydrogel interface is proposed for high accuracy emotion classification. The biosensor can reliably collect high-quality electrophysiological signals under various conditions. Additionally, the use of transfer learning technique improves the classification accuracy of emotions.