Development of a Novel Deformation-Based Tissue Softness Sensor

The biomechanical characteristics of human tissues have a close relation with individual pathologies. The softness or elasticity of tissues is an important index of normal/abnormal tissues, which further implies some diseases. Thus, measuring and monitoring the softness of human tissues is very useful to evaluate human health. This paper analyzes current methods of measuring the softness of human tissues and then develops an innovative tissue softness sensor based on two elastic elements. The theoretical analysis was carried out by using elastodynamics and verified that this sensor can be utilized to measure the Young's module of human tissues. The measurement is quick, safe and convenient. A prototype sensor was produced and was tested in a laboratory setup using some soft materials. The experimental result showed that this sensor has good performance in measuring the Young's module of soft materials.