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Tag: Hong Kong

HKBU joint research reveals gut microbial enzymes reactivate triclosan which induces colitis

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

A Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) collaborative research study has revealed that certain gut microbial enzymes mediate the reactivation of triclosan (TCS) from its inactive glucuronide metabolite. TCS is an antimicrobial agent commonly used in a wide range of consumer products, and it is associated with the development of colitis.

The research results have been published in Nature Communications, an international scientific journal.

Mechanism of TCS exposure leading to colitis previously unclear

TCS is widely used as an antimicrobial agent in consumer products such as toothpaste, mouthwash, hand sanitisers, cosmetics and toys. It is a major environmental contaminant, and it has been shown that TCS exposure increases the risk of colitis.

Once TCS enters the human body, it is rapidly metabolised to form the biologically inactive metabolite TCS-glucuronide (TCS-G), which is easily eliminated from the body. Due to this characteristic, the mechanism of how environmental exposure to TCS leads to gut toxicity in the human body has previously remained unclear.

To answer this question, a research team co-led by Professor Cai Zongwei, Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis at HKBU; Professor Matthew R Redinbo from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Professor Zhang Guodong from the University of Massachusetts Amherst conducted a research study based on the hypothesis that certain gut microbial enzymes act on TCS-G in the gut, leading to the reactivation of TCS and the subsequent development of colitis.

TCS concentration uniquely high in the gut

To begin with, the research team sought to determine whether the gut has a different TCS metabolic profile compared to other body tissues. A group of mice were fed food that contained TCS. After four weeks, it was found that the biologically inactive TCS-G was dominant in their liver, bile, heart and small intestine, while the colitis-inducing TCS was dominant in the gut (cecum and colon). The results showed that the gut has a uniquely high concentration of TCS compared to other body tissues.

The research team then analysed the relationship between TCS-containing products and the concentration of TCS in the human body. In a group of human subjects who used TCS-containing personal care products for four months, both TCS and TCS-G were detected in their stool and urine samples, with TCS being dominant in stool and TCS-G being dominant in urine. However, TCS and TCS-G were not detected in the control group who used TCS-free personal care products. The results showed that the use of TCS-containing products leads to a high level of TCS, specifically in the human gut.

Gut microbiota significant in TCS-G conversion

The question remains why the human gut has a uniquely high TCS concentration. To answer this, the research team put forth the hypothesis that gut microbiota participate in the conversion of TCS-G to TCS, leading to the accumulation of TCS in the gut.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers observed that in an in vitro setting, cultured gut bacteria from both mice and humans were able to catalyse the conversion of TCS-G to TCS. To investigate whether the same phenomenon appears in an in vivo setting, the research team found that the inhibition of gut bacteria from mice by applying an antibiotic treatment almost reduced the concentration of TCS in their guts by half, and it increased the concentration of TCS-G by six-fold. The results affirmed that gut microbiota play a significant role in the conversion of TCS-G to TCS in the gut.

Specific enzymes catalyse TCS-G conversion

To investigate the mechanism by which gut microbiota catalyse TCS-G conversion, the research team focused on the intestinal β-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes produced by gut bacteria in both mice and humans, because they have been shown to catalyse a wide range of metabolite conversions. Using a series of screening techniques, two types of GUS, namely “Loop 1” and “flavin mononucleotide (FMN)-binding” GUSs, were found to be most effective at converting TCS-G to TCS in vitro.

The research team then applied a GUS inhibitor, a drug that inhibits the function of Loop 1 and FMN-binding GUSs, to TCS-exposed and TCS-free mice. It was found that the GUS inhibitor could curb the conversion of TCS-G to TCS by the GUS enzymes. Colitis in TCS-exposed mice was also relieved after the application of the GUS inhibitor. The results support the notion that specific microbial GUS enzymes drive the conversion of TCS-G to TCS, and as a result, the chance of developing colitis is increased.

More stringent TCS controls needed

Professor Cai said: “Our research results clearly defined the mechanism by which gut microbiota are involved in the metabolism and toxicology of TCS, and the study offers a way to prevent the development of colitis following environmental exposure to chemicals.

“Regulatory bodies should consider imposing more stringent controls on the use of TCS. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the marketing of TCS in over-the-counter antiseptic products in 2016, the chemical remains approved for use in a wide range of products. Transparency on TCS ingredients in product labelling and illustrations should also be improved so that consumers can be aware of the potential risks and make informed choices.”

EdUHK researcher builds corpus to support learning, teaching of Cantonese

Posted on by eduhk

Hong Kong is a multilingual society, but nearly 90% of the population speak Cantonese as a first language. Cantonese is used in both formal and informal settings. Many non-local people living and working in Hong Kong therefore need to learn Cantonese in order to integrate themselves into the local community.

Despite its dominant status, however, Cantonese has never been formalised and implemented into the school curriculum. Consequently, learning and teaching materials and teaching methods vary considerably.

Dr Andy Chin Chi-on, Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), proposed a research programme adopting a more scientific and objective approach to promote the learning and teaching Cantonese.

Studies in the past five decades have enriched our understanding of the lexicon, phonology and grammar of Cantonese; yet some deeper issues, such as pragmatics, semantics and discourse, remain to be explored. This kind of research requires a significant amount of authentic and natural language data. The research team thus proposed the construction of a Cantonese corpus to expand the scope of Cantonese linguistic research.

One major advantage of using corpus in language studies is the provision of objective, unbiased quantitative and qualitative data for research and other applications, including the compilation of language materials and natural language processing, such as speech-to-text and text-to-speech algorithms.

The research project started in 2011 with the support of an EdUHK internal research grant and the Early Career Scheme of the Research Grants Council. Dr Chin constructed the corpus in two phases with a size of about one million Chinese characters. The corpus data was collected by transcribing the dialogues of 80 black-and-white movies produced between the 1950s and 1970s, and is now available online.

The corpus won the Gold Medal and Special Award at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival in 2019. Dr Chin has also developed mobile apps containing the corpus data.

The CanPro app, which enables learners to practise Cantonese pronunciation through commonly used expressions in the corpus, won a Silver Medal at the 2021 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days.

Another mobile app called ‘Learn Cantonese with Big Data’, supported by the Language Fund of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, was launched in March 2022. One major feature of this app is the provision of linguistic information that Cantonese learners might find relevant and useful, such as the collocation of verb-noun, classifier-noun structures, which cannot be obtained without corpus data.

Exploring the relationship between school kindness and students’ sense of belonging

Posted on by eduhk

Recent studies have demonstrated that character strengths, including a group of individual characteristics that have moral value and lead to ‘good virtues,’ play a crucial role in students’ participation in society and achievement of success.

Kindness, which is a significant aspect of character strength, has been considered essential for school programmes to improve students’ mental health and foster positive well-being.

As a key social context, schools influence students’ academic, psychological, and social well-being, providing mastery of knowledge and shaping their whole-person development. Numerous studies have highlighted the social aspects of school functions and recognised the effects of schooling on students’ academic and psychological outcomes.

A study conducted by Dr Huang Jing, Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, used multilevel structural equation modeling to explore the relationships between students’ sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness.

It included 1,973 students (55.2% girls) in 29 local secondary schools, aged from 13 and 17. Since gender differences in students’ character strengths and perceptions of the school climate have been found in previous studies, the secondary purpose of the study was to examine possible differences in the study constructs across gender groups.

The study tested four sets of hypotheses: (1) Students’ sense of school belonging at the between- and within-school levels are positively correlated with their perceptions of school kindness; (2) students’ sense of school belonging at the between- and within-school levels are positively associated with character strength of kindness; (3) students’ perceptions of school kindness at the between- and within-school levels are positively associated with character strength of kindness; and (4) female students have higher levels of sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness than male students.

The study found that students’ sense of school belonging was positively correlated with their perceptions of kindness at the school and student levels. At the individual level, as students’ sense of school belonging increased, they were more likely to perceive the school as a fair, caring and kind community.

At the school level, if a school was characterised by a high level of sense of belongingness, it can be predicted that the school tended to be considered as a kind and caring place, where school members helped and cared about each other. The students’ sense of school belonging was positively linked to character strength of kindness at the individual level, but this relationship was found to be non-significant at the school level. At both levels of analysis, the positive relationships between students’ perceptions of school kindness and character strength of kindness were significant. In addition, girls reported higher levels of character strength of kindness than boys.

The study was co-conducted with Professor John Lee Chi-kin, Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction. It provided a better understanding of the relationships between students’ sense of school belonging, perceptions of school kindness, and character strength of kindness.

EdUHK research reveals healthy eating education improves young adults’ eating habits

Posted on by eduhk

A population health survey in Hong Kong revealed that 50% of people aged 15 to 84 were either overweight or obese because of insufficient intake of wholegrains, fruits, and vegetables, and the increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened and alcoholic beverages, convenience foods, take-out food, and other high-density, low-nutrient foods.

The research by Dr Louisa Chung Ming-yan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health and Physical Education, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), found that public education to promote awareness of healthy eating and transferring knowledge about balanced diets has played a pivotal role in positively changing people’s eating behaviour in Hong Kong.

Younger adults, however, are found to lack skills in planning, purchasing, preparing, and cooking healthy meals at home, and tend to select nutritionally-inadequate pre-packaged foods. Establishing healthy eating habits is considered to be a sustainable strategy for good health maintenance, and mobile apps are expected to be a highly effective way to promote healthy eating among young adults. But there are few interventions that apply apps to improve younger adults’ nutrition behaviour.

In this study, a dietary monitoring mobile app, called the “eDietary Portal” (the App), integrated with behavioural feedback, was evaluated in people aged 19 to 39. The primary aim was to investigate the effectiveness of the App in improving the nutrition knowledge and dietary habits of younger adults by increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and decreasing the consumption of salt and sugar.

Both the experimental group and the control group were given a three-hour nutrition seminar, but the experimental group also underwent 12 weeks of dietary monitoring with the App. Behavioural feedback delivered by the App was evaluated to facilitate the transfer of nutritional knowledge to nutrition behaviour. Baseline and post-intervention nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviour were collected. All mean scores of post-GNKQ-R increased from the baseline for both the control and experimental groups.

The study found that both the control group and the experimental group improved their nutrition knowledge, thanks to the seminar, but the App encouraged dietary reflection, making the experimental subjects more capable of matching food products to food categories, choosing healthy foods, and selecting foods to reduce health problems and the risk of disease.

Both the control group and the experimental group increased their intake of dietary fibre, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables, but the increase was greater in the experimental group, particularly fruit and vegetable consumption. The experimental group reduced sugar consumption more than the control group, but the difference in salt consumption was insignificant. Larger individuals in the experimental group were more likely to increase fruit consumption.

The research concluded that the integration of knowledge transfer about healthy eating with a mobile app is essential for technology-immersed young people. Healthy eating promotion conducted with appropriate technology apps can help users to acquire information flexibly in terms of time, pace, and place, can be adapted to individual needs, and allows reflection by users.

To learn more about the study, please click here.

Gut microbiota: World’s first discovery by CUHK to combat long COVID

Posted on by Editorial Team

The Microbiota I-(MagIC)-Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has identified distinct gut microbiome profiles associated with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, commonly known as ‘long COVID’.

These gut microbial signatures can be used to predict the risk of developing long COVID in patients with acute infection and to diagnose long COVID in recovered patients with persistent unexplained symptoms. This is the world’s first study to demonstrate gut microbiota as a key determinant of long COVID. The results have been published in a leading international journal, Gut.

More than 500 million people have suffered from COVID-19 globally. This study in Hong Kong found that up to 80% of recovered patients developed long COVID at six months, characterised mostly by fatigue, poor memory, difficulty in sleeping and hair loss in the weeks and months after the initial infection.

Decoding the links to specific long COVID symptoms

The study found that some 76% of patients had at least one persistent symptom six months after recovery from COVID-19. Contrary to conventional belief, factors such as age, gender, co-morbidities, severity of COVID-19, and the use of antibiotics or anti-viral drugs were not associated with the occurrence of long COVID.

Interestingly, it was found that patients with long COVID had less diverse gut microbiome, while the gut microbiome of patients without long COVID was similar to that of uninfected people. Using a machine-learning model to analyse over 1,400 stool samples, the team has identified ‘bacteria signatures’ that can predict long COVID with over 90% sensitivity and specificity.

For example, a lack of certain ‘friendly’ immunity-boosting bacteria was strongly associated with persistent respiratory symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath, whereas the abundance of certain pathogens was linked to fatigue and neuropsychiatric symptoms including difficulty in sleeping, poor memory and loss of taste.

It follows that the team can potentially utilise gut microbiome as a biomarker to predict, detect and treat long COVID; in particular, different bacteria signatures can account for different ‘subtypes’ of long COVID symptoms according to the organs predominantly involved.

A diagram showing the association between gut microbiome composition and long COVID.

Preventing and treating long COVID

In a pilot study of recovered COVID-19 patients who received a novel gut microbiome immunity formula (SIM01) developed by CUHK, 90% of them did not develop long COVID at six months. A large-scale randomised trial is underway to confirm the efficacy of this formula, which offers hope for the prevention and alleviation of long COVID.

Prof. Francis Chan, Dean of Medicine and Co-Director of MagIC Centre, remarked, ‘Our findings demonstrate that individuals’ gut microbiome profiles affect their susceptibility to long COVID. Our discovery does not only for the first time offer a scientific explanation for long COVID, but also provides an effective tool for prediction, diagnosis and treatment of this global health problem.’

Prof. Siew Chien Ng, Professor and Director of MagIC Centre, added, ‘Our study showed that microbiome-based profiling is potentially useful for risk assessment, timely diagnosis and targeted treatment of long COVID. These new findings also indicate that, in addition to hastening recovery from acute COVID-19 infection, our microbiome immunity formula (SIM01) is potentially effective in preventing long COVID.’

This study was funded by Inno@HK of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR Government.

Please refer to the latest eNews for updates about CUHK.

Education forum highlights the importance of partnerships with China

Posted on by Editorial Team

Lingnan University in Hong Kong recently hosted a roundtable discussion on the theme of “Creating a New Destination Market” as part of the QS Higher Education Summit China 2022.

The mid-April online event saw speakers examine issues affecting student mobility, research exchanges, scholarship funding and partnerships between institutions at a time when diplomatic tensions and COVID-19 have brought many new challenges.

A key consideration was whether there is a “paradigm shift in the making”, as universities in Hong Kong and China take steps to circumvent current obstacles and position themselves as attractive destination markets for overseas undergraduates and research students.

Statistics show that almost half a million international students chose the China region as their study destination in 2019 and, despite subsequent disruptions, the number has remained relatively stable.

Underlying trends indicate admissions from some “source countries” are rising, while elsewhere they are in decline.

However, more courses are being tailor-made for overseas applicants, universities are looking to export certain education models, and for those in the region’s “knowledge economy”, success in the face of stiff competition from other international markets, has become a major objective.

Professor Leonard K Cheng, President of Lingnan University, noted that Hong Kong’s universities still face some operating constraints in admitting non-local students.

These relate predominantly to government funding for undergraduate programmes, with a cap of around 20 per cent on mainland China or overseas students, who pay higher tuition fees.

There are, though, self-financed and taught postgraduate (TPg) programmes, for which tuition fees are in effect determined by market competition.

“We’re also working to establish joint schools or colleges [with partners in the Greater Bay Area] to enrich students’ learning experience and tap into the possibilities for research and co-supervision of PhD students.” Cheng said.

“The rise of China in terms of education and research capability will be the key driver for partnerships and student mobility. China will move up the global pyramid as the ‘local knowledge’ aspect starts to count more.”

Professor Wenqin Shen, Associate Professor at Peking University’s Graduate School of Education, noted four main reasons for China’s increasing appeal to international students. One is generous scholarships at national level. Another is comparatively cheap tuition fees, especially for medicine and engineering.

Third is the now extensive alumni network. And fourth is “language capital”, which gives an advantage in the labour market.

A pressing challenge, though, is extending STEM research partnerships with overseas institutions amid sensitivities about anything high-tech.

“The number of science, engineering and computer science students going abroad has decreased very fast in the last two years,” Shen said.

Even so, Professor Shalendra Sharma, Associate Vice President (Quality Assurance and Internationalisation) at Lingnan University, was confident about future two-way exchanges, based on China’s burgeoning reputation for advances in nanotechnology, robotics and AI, and opportunites to transfer credits.

For Professor Anthony Welch, Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, partnerships benefit students, faculty members and research initiatives.

“It strengthens both sides,” he said. “Chinese universities are now hugely competitive and often world-leading.”

EdUHK’s health risk assessments based on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in freshwater fish

Posted on by eduhk

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic organic pollutants, which are usually deposited in soil and marine sediments through petroleum contamination, fossil fuel burning, fallout from air pollution, and terrestrial runoff. The dietary intake of contaminated food is considered to be one of the major sources of total human exposure to PAHs.

Previous studies revealed that concentrations of PAHs in human blood plasma collected from Hong Kong residents were positively correlated with consumption of seafood, including fish, which is a major source of protein in Hong Kong. The contamination of PAHs in farmed fish depends partly on the quality of feed. Fish meal and fish oil are commonly used in fish feed, but they are also a source of organic pollutants, including PAHs. Formulated feeds have become the major diet of many important farmed species.

In 2018, Hong Kong produced 3,600 tonnes of food waste per day, which accounted for one third of municipal solid waste sent to landfill. Food waste is a possible replacement of fish meal to produce safe and quality aquatic products. Recycling food waste for fish feed will also reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

Dr Man Yu-bon, Assistant Professor at the Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, and the research team found that PAH concentrations in all the fish species fed a food waste-based diet were all below the local and international maximum permissible levels, so there was no health risk for human consumption.

The researchers hypothesised that food waste could replace part of fish meal to lower PAHs in fish. The major objectives of the study were to (1) investigate the concentrations of PAHs in food waste used as fish feeds, and (2) assess potential human health risks based on PAH concentrations in the fish meat.

Two farmed freshwater fish species, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and jade perch (Scortum barcoo) were fed food waste-based diets (experimental diet) and compared with fish on a commercial formulated control diet (control diet) for a period of six months. Sixteen priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the diets and cultured fish meat were tested by gas chromatographyemass spectrometry.

No significant differences in PAHs were observed between two fish species fed with the experimental diet and the control diet (p > 0.05). However, there was a significantly higher concentration of PAHs in market fish compared with the same species of fish on the experimental diet (p < 0.05). Thus, the experimental diet has the potential to lower the PAH concentration in farmed fish compared to market fish.

A human health risk assessment based on the PAH concentration found there were no non-cancer risks and very low cancer risks from consuming fish fed the experimental diet. In general, the fish fed with the experimental diet were unlikely to cause adverse health effects. There is therefore great potential for using food waste-based diets as an alternative to commercial feeds for cultivating freshwater fish, while also reducing pressure on Hong Kong landfills.

To learn more about the study, please click here.

HKAPA School of Film and Television’s “Dance In The End” selected for screening in the 7th Jacksonville Dance Film Festival 2022 and as an Honourable Mention in the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival

Posted on by Communications Office

School of Film and Television’s Master of Fine Arts Project “Dance In The End“ has been selected for screening in the 7th Jacksonville Dance Film Festival 2022 to be held in Florida, US. It has also been selected as an Honourable Mention in the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival.

Jacksonville Dance Film Festival is an extension of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, which “aims to connect diverse audiences, cultures, and creative communities through the universal language of film and movement.”

Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival is a monthly film festival in which a film wins the award of the current month, and the 12 monthly winners compete for the annual award of “Best Movie of the Year”.

Learning to apply psychology to our real-world problems

Posted on by Editorial Team

Long before the mental, as well physical, stresses generated by the COVID pandemic began to have their profoundly negative impact, the accelerating pace of modern life was already exacting an increasing toll on many people’s psychological well-being.

In response, there has been a growing interest from organisations, as well as individuals, in understanding the drivers of human behaviour, and in the identification and treatment of specific mental health issues. Unfortunately, however, there remains a shortage of skilled professionals, and trained academics, equipped to respond to these developments.

This is a key reason why Lingnan University’s Department of Applied Psychology created its new Master of Social Sciences in Applied Psychology (MAP) programme, which will be launched in September 2022. The MAP will not only provide students with a broad foundation in the practical applications of psychology, but also enable them to take the first steps along specific career paths.

Increasing opportunities

“People with a background in psychology can work in a diverse range of fields: in both public and private organisations, in NGOs, in schools, in health settings, almost everywhere,” points out Professor Padmore Amoah of Lingnan’s Department of Applied Psychology.

In this one year full-time or two years part-time programme, a range of elective courses enable students to explore their own specific interests. A number of these courses will cover topics not usually found in postgraduate psychology programmes in Hong Kong, such as sleep and health, positive gerontology, and consumer psychology. Furthermore, MAP students will get the chance to conduct their own research project with the support of a supervisor.

On graduation, MAP students will be eligible to join the Hong Kong Psychological Society (HKPS), and they can go on to enrol in professional programmes, such as those in clinical, educational, and industrial and organisational, psychology.

For students wishing to begin training for a career in counselling, the options open to them include the programme’s Concentration in Counselling Psychology. Despite the huge and growing demand for counsellors and clinical psychologists in Mainland China, very few Chinese universities currently offer relevant degrees, either at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. These types of professional skills also seem certain to be increasingly sought after in the wider region, as well.

Alternatively, rather than pursue professional training or employment opportunities, MAP graduates may choose to stay in academia and apply to doctoral research programmes.

Faculty and facilities

With international faculty of the highest quality, Lingnan’s Department of Applied Psychology is recognised as one of the best in its field within the region. In its research and teaching, the department aims to apply psychological principles to real-world, practical problems. Among the other taught master’s programmes already offered at Lingnan is the MSc in Work and Organisational Psychology, which is also a professional degree.

The resources MAP students will be able to access include the Wofoo Joseph Lee Consulting and Counselling Psychology Research Centre (WJLCCPRC). The WJLCCPRC’s work focuses on innovative research in the fields of consulting psychology, counselling psychology and the physiological indicators of well-being.

CityU’s advanced robotic VR system teleoperates robots for COVID-19 swab tests

Posted on by Editorial Team

A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently developed an innovative human-machine interface (HMI) that can teleoperate robots to imitate the user’s actions and perform complicated tasks. The breakthrough technology demonstrates the potential for conducting COVID-19 swab tests and nursing patients with infectious diseases.

A key part of the advanced HMI system, named Robotic VR, is the flexible, multi-layered electronic skin developed by Dr Yu Xinge, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at CityU, and his team. The system’s bottom layer of skin-tone elastomeric silicone serves as a soft adhesive interface that can be mounted on the skin and joints of the user.

“This new system enables teleoperating robotics to conduct complicated tasks. Doctors wearing the HMI system with VR glasses can remotely control the robots and experience the tactile sensations of the robots to accurately conduct surgery, and medical workers can remotely manipulate the robots to look after infectious patients or collecting bio-samples, thus greatly decreasing the infection risk,” says Dr Yu.

The team conducted experiments such as remotely controlling the robotic hand to collect throat swab samples for COVID-19 tests and to teleoperate humanoid robots to clean a room and even provide patient care. The team is developing a next-generation system for the robotic collection of nasal swab tests.

The layers of the electronic skin are interconnected with a collection of chip-scale integrated circuits and sensing components, including resistors, capacitors, a Bluetooth module, a microcontroller unit (MCU), and soft sensors and actuators developed by the team.

The sensors of the Robotic VR system can accurately detect and convert subtle human motion into electrical signals, which are processed by the MCU and wirelessly transmitted to the target robot. In this way, the user can teleoperate the robot to imitate their motion to accomplish tasks remotely. The pressure sensors on the robot can send feedback signals to control the vibration intensity of the haptic actuators through the Bluetooth module, thus providing haptic feedback for the user. The user can then precisely control and adjust the motion and strength of the robot, or its arm, according to the intensity of the feedback.

The sensors of the Robotic VR system can accurately detect and convert subtle human motion into electrical signals, which are processed by the MCU and wirelessly transmitted to the target robot. In this way, the user can teleoperate the robot to imitate their motion to accomplish tasks remotely. The pressure sensors on the robot can send feedback signals to control the vibration intensity of the haptic actuators through the Bluetooth module, thus providing haptic feedback for the user. The user can then precisely control and adjust the motion and strength of the robot, or its arm, according to the intensity of the feedback.

“The new system is stretchable and can be tightly mounted on human skin and even the whole human body for a long time. In addition, the interface provides both haptic and visual feedback systems, providing an immersive experience for users,” says Dr Yu.

The HMI system links users to robotics or computers and plays a significant role in teleoperating robotics. However, conventional HMIs are based on bulky, rigid and expensive machines, and the lack of adequate feedback for users limits their application for conducting complicated tasks.

With the advanced circuit design and outstanding mechanical characteristics, Dr Yu believes Robotic VR can teleoperate various machines, e.g. driverless cars, while people with disability can remotely manipulate a robot to carry heavy goods. Dr Yu also expects this new system to help provide a new approach in wirelessly connecting people to a robot or virtual character in the metaverse.

The system supports three wireless transmission methods – Bluetooth (up to tens of metres), Wi-Fi (up to about 100 metres), and the Internet (worldwide) – which can be adjusted according to the practical applications.

The research study was published in Science Advances under the title “Electronic Skin as Wireless Human Machine Interfaces for Robotic VR”. The corresponding authors are Dr Yu and Professor Xie Zhaoqian from Dalian University of Technology (DUT). The first authors are PhD students Liu Yiming, Yiu Chun-ki and post-doc fellow Dr Huang Ya from BME, and Ms Song Zhen from DUT.