When stretchable sensors are too elastic, turn to heterogeneous silicone
(WorldNews Japan)

At least, that is the finding of Yokohama National University. The problem is that forces propagate too far in very stretchy materials, causing unwanted interaction. To prevent this, a Yokohama team has used a very stretchy silicone (Ecoflex 00-20) to make their substrate, building islands of the far stiffer silicone PDMS (polydimethylsliloxane) where forces have to be arrested. The resulting sensor can separately measure elastic extension (strain) along x and y axes, and at the same time...