Artificial Skin That Can Sense Heat, Pressure, and More

               

                There have been many advancements in prosthetic limbs recently. Despite allowing amputees to move and control their prosthetic limbs, they still cannot feel. American and South Korean scientists have begun moving towards solving this problem. Researchers in South Korea developed an elastic polymer that mimics the sensory capabilities of natural skin. Through human machine interfaces, people can control these limbs with their nerves, muscles, or even their brain. However, they have no way of telling if what they are holding is burning hot or if it is falling from their grasp. This new sensor is able to detect temperature, pressure, and moisture and is embedded with ultrathin sensors made of gold and silicon.

                Stretchable sensors have been in development for many years although this one is the most sensitive of them all. With 400 sensors per square millimeter, it can accurately relay tactile information as a regular hand would. Even more amazing, the scientists behind this polymer used a high speed camera to determine the way a natural hand moves and designed the “skin” based off of points where a natural hand stretches and contracts. Along with that, researchers have made it as realistic as possible by adding actuators that heat up to approximately body temperature to mimic the feel of real skin.

                In a demonstration of the “smart skin,” Dae-Hyeong Kim, who lead the research project at Seoul National University, connected the skin to a rat and monitored the rat’s brainwaves to show that it was interpreting the data as tactile information. Despite the rat receiving the data, it is impossible to know the extent of what the rat is actually feeling. Kim says that this issue will be resolved as they move on to larger animals, which he says is the plan for the future. This technology is still far from being complete, although in the future, it could be commonplace for amputees in the future.