Researchers have made a major breakthrough in attempts to mimics the skin’s ability to sense touch, temperature and pain.
Prosthetic limbs could soon be designed with a sense of touch, after scientists developed a revolutionary plastic “skin”.
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| Victorian prosthetic arm, 1840-1940 | photo credit John Lester |
After a decade of study researchers from Stanford University in California have made a major breakthrough in attempts to mimics the skin’s ability to sense touch, temperature and pain.
The plastic skin is made of two layers. The top layer creates a sensing mechanism, while the bottom layer transmits electrical signals into biochemical stimuli for nerve cells to receive.
It is able to detect pressure over the same range as human skin, from a light finger tap to a firm handshake.
“This is the first time a flexible, skin-like material has been able to detect pressure and also transmit a signal to a component of the nervous system,” said Professor Zhenan Bao from the university’s department of chemical engineering, who led the 17-person research team.
Professor Bao’s work, published in the journal Science, takes another step toward her ultimate aim of creating a fully flexible electronic fabric which can be embedded with sensors and cover a prosthetic limb to replicate some of the skin’s sensory functions.
[source: Independent]
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