They are hoping that the skin could be in commercial use in machines within the next 2 years
The team got inspired by one of the scenes in Star War’s – The Empire Strikes Back film. Luke Skywalker was able to feel through his robotic hand after he lost his hand in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader.
Image source via Tech Xplore
The electronic skin is able to detect signals and differentiate physical contact like a human being. This is enabled with the network of sensors connected with a single electrical conductor. Apart from being able to recognise 20 to 30 different textures, it can read Braille letters too.
"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb... and prosthetic users face that problem. So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand," said Tee via Channel News Asia.
They hoped that their invention can be used to help those with prosthetic limbs to feel again, whether an object is hard or soft.
Cover photo via Reuters
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