Traditional sound sources and sound detectors are usually independent and discrete in the human hearing range. To minimize the device size and integrate it with wearable electronics, there is an urgent requirement of realizing the functional integration of generating and detecting sound in a single device. Here we show an intelligent laser-induced graphene artificial throat, which can not only generate sound but also detect sound in a single device. More importantly, the intelligent artificial throat will significantly assist for the disabled, because the simple throat vibrations such as hum, cough and scream with different intensity or frequency from a mute person can be detected and converted into controllable sounds. Furthermore, the laser-induced graphene artificial throat has the advantage of one-step fabrication, high efficiency, excellent flexibility and low cost, and it will open practical applications in voice control, wearable electronics and many other areas.

Pressure sensors are a key component in electronic skin (e-skin) sensing systems. Most reported resistive pressure sensors have a high sensitivity at low pressures (5 kPa), which is inadequate for practical applications. For example, actions like a gentle touch and object manipulation have pressures below 10 kPa and 10–100 kPa, respectively. Maintaining a high sensitivity in a wide pressure range is in great demand. Here, a flexible, wide range and ultra-sensitive resistive pressure sensor with a foam-like structure based on laser-scribed graphene (LSG) is demonstrated. Benefitting from the large spacing between graphene layers and the unique v-shaped microstructure of the LSG, the sensitivity of the pressure sensor is as high as 0.96 kPa⁻¹ in a wide pressure range (0 ~ 50 kPa). Considering both sensitivity and pressure sensing range, the pressure sensor developed in this work is the best among all reported pressure sensors to date. A model of the LSG pressure sensor is also established, which agrees well with the experimental results. This work indicates that laser scribed flexible graphene pressure sensors could be widely used for artificial e-skin, medical-sensing, bio-sensing and many other areas.

Graphene strain sensors have promising prospects of applications in detecting human motion. However, the shortage of graphene growth and patterning techniques has become a challenging issue hindering the application of graphene strain sensors. Therefore, we propose wafer-scale flexible strain sensors with high-performance, which can be fabricated in one-step laser scribing. The graphene films could be obtained by directly reducing graphene oxide film in a Light-Scribe DVD burner. The gauge factor (GF) of the graphene strain sensor (10 mm × 10 mm square) is 0.11. In order to enhance the GF further, graphene micro-ribbons (20 μm width, 0.6 mm long) has been used as strain sensors, of which the GF is up to 9.49. The devices may conform to various application requirements, such as high GF for low-strain applications and low GF for high deformation applications. The work indicates that laser scribed flexible graphene strain sensors could be widely used in medical-sensing, bio-sensing, artificial skin and many other areas.