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Li et al. Soft Sci 2023;3:22 Soft Science
DOI: 10.20517/ss.2023.11

Research Article Open Access

Hair-compatible sponge electrodes integrated on VR

headset for electroencephalography

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Hongbian Li , Hyonyoung Shin , Minsu Zhang , Andrew Yu , Heeyong Huh , Gubeum Kwon , Nicholas
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Riveira , Sangjun Kim , Susmita Gangopadahyay , Jessie Peng , Zhengjie Li , Yifan Rao , Luis Sentis ,
José del R. Millán 2,6,7 , Nanshu Lu 1,2,4,5,8,*
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Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Artue Associates Incorporated, Seoul, 04410, Republic of Korea.
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Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Department of Neurology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
* Correspondence to: Prof. Nanshu Lu, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of
Texas at Austin, 2617 Wichita St., Austin, TX 78712, USA. E-mail: nanshulu@utexas.edu
How to cite this article: Li H, Shin H, Zhang M, Yu A, Huh H, Kwon G, Riveira N, Kim S, Gangopadahyay S, Peng J, Li Z, Rao Y,
Sentis L, Millán JdR, Lu N. Hair-compatible sponge electrodes integrated on VR headset for electroencephalography. Soft Sci
2023;3:22. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2023.11
Received: 28 Feb 2023 First Decision: 4 Apr 2023 Revised: 9 May 2023 Accepted: 24 May 2023 Published: 3 Jul 2023
Academic Editors: Dae-Hyeong Kim, Zhifeng Ren Copy Editor: Lin He Production Editor: Dong-Li Li
Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a promising tool for brain-computer interaction and neuroscience
research due to its ability to provide immersive and interactive experiences for its users. As a powerful tool to
noninvasively monitor the cortex, electroencephalography (EEG) combined with VR represents an exciting
opportunity for the measurement of brain activity during these experiences, providing insight into cognitive and
neural processes. However, traditional gel-based EEG sensors are not compatible with VR headsets, and most
emerging VR-EEG headsets utilizing rigid comb electrodes are uncomfortable after prolonged wear. To address this
limitation, we created soft, porous, and hair-compatible sponge electrodes based on conductive poly(3,4-
ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate/melamine (PMA) and integrated them onto a VR headset through
a customized, flexible circuit for multichannel EEG during VR task performing. Our PMA sponge electrodes can
deform to make contact with the scalp skin through hairs under the pressure naturally applied by the strap of the
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VR headset. The specific contact impedance was consistently below 80 kΩ·cm , even at hairy sites. We
demonstrated the capability of our VR-EEG headset by recording alpha rhythms during eye closure at both hairless

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
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