A new form of artificial skin, threaded with a network of artificial sensors, could recreate the sense of touch for people wearing prosthetic limbs, researchers revealed on Tuesday.
Researchers in Korea and the U.S. have developed a new form of ultra-thin sensors that can pick up sensations of heat, pressure and moisture, MIT Technology Review reports. The sensors are malleable enough to be woven into a thin layer of polymer. The breakthrough, researchers say, came when they packed the skin with enough sensors, up to 400 per square millimeter, to recreate the sensations of human touch.
“If you have these sensors at high resolution across the finger, you can give the same tactile touch that the normal hand would convey to the brain,” said contributing researcher Roozbeh Ghaffari.
Still, they cautioned that the skin was still several breakthroughs away from becoming a commercial product. Most crucially, scientists need to puzzle out better ways of wiring the skin into the wearer’s nervous system, so that no feeling is lost as the skin transmits its finely tuned signals to the brain.
Read more at MIT Technology Review.
- The Fall of Roe and the Failure of the Feminist Industrial Complex
- What Trump Knew About January 6
- Follow the Algae Brick Road to Plant-Based Buildings
- The Education of Glenn Youngkin
- The Benefits and Challenges of Cutting Back on Meat
- Here's Everything New on Netflix in July 2022—and What's Leaving
- Women in Northern Ireland Still Struggle to Access Abortion More Than 2 Years After Decriminalization
