Sensory hair cells are known for the exquisite displacement sensitivity with which they detect the sound-evoked vibrations in the inner ear. In this article, we determine a stochastically imposed fundamental lower bound on a hair cell's sensitivity to detect mechanically coded information arriving at its hair bundle. Based on measurements of transducer current and its noise in outer hair cells ...

A dielectric elastomer transducer is a deformable capacitor, and is under development as a sensor, actuator, or generator. Among various geometric configurations, laterallyconstrained transducer, also known as pure-shear transducer, is easy to implement and effective to couple mechanical force and electrical voltage. This analytical study reveals that lateral pre-stretch enhances actuation, far...

A virtual transducer forming technique has been developed with an objective to enhance remote environment perception in tele-robotic systems by adding proximity feel in pre-contact phase during remote manipulation tasks. A fluidics inspired transducer model has been conceived and designed to serve for master side perception creation based on remote robot’s proximity with workspace objects and i...

Many applications in the life-sciences demand non-contact manipulation tools for forceful but nevertheless delicate handling of various types of sample. Moreover, the system should support high-resolution optical imaging. Here we present a hybrid acoustic/optical manipulation system which utilizes a transparent transducer, making it compatible with high-NA imaging in a microfluidic environment....