SMART SKIN CAN GIVE PROSTHETIC HANDS A SENSE OF TOUCH
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Loading... - Cristian Castillo
- 14 Jul 2020
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A 'supersmart' artificial skin has been revealed that could give patients back a sense of touch.
Researchers in Seoul National University say their skin is extremely similar to human skin. It is stretchy, like real skin, and even has a built-in heater so it feels like living tissue.
It can sense pressure, temperature, and humidity. Rearchers tested the artificial skin on a prosthetic hand, and found the wearer could even sense if a diaper was wet or dry.
'The prosthetic hand and laminated electronic skin could encounter many complex operations such as hand shaking, keyboard tapping, ball grasping, holding a cup of hot or cold drink, touching dry or wet surfaces and human to human contact,' they write in the paper, which was published in December in Nature Communications.
The bulk of the new skin is composed of a flexible, transparent silicone material called polydimethylsiloxane - or PDMS.
Embedded within it are silicon nanoribbons that generate electricity when they're squished or stretched, providing a source of tactile feedback.
They can also sense whether an object is hot or cold. The humidity sensors are made up of capacitors, and were tested using a diaper.
Researchers had the prosthetic hand prod various diapers, and it turned out it was able to distinguish between wet and dry diapers.
