This is the electronic skin capable of imitating the sense of touch

2023-05-23 14:09:04

A study from the University of Stanford talks about creating a electronic skin Able to imitate the sense of touch. Engineers have been able to create soft, flexible materials that mimic every one of the senses experienced when touching something, but they’ve never created a single sheet of skin-like materials that can speak directly to the brain—until now.

The electronic skin is soft and elasticwhile being able to imitate the sense of touch and work efficiently at low voltage. Although previous efforts required a rigid electronic skin to convert the detected signal into electrical pulses that the brain can read, researchers at Stanford University have produced soft integrated circuits that convert the detected pressure or temperature into electrical signals, which are similar to nerve impulses to communicate with the brain. What the researchers hope is that, at some point, those signals could be directed to wireless communication chips implanted in the peripheral nerve, allowing amputees to control the prosthetics.

“We have been working on a monolithic e-skin for some time. The hurdle was not so much finding mechanisms to mimic the remarkable sensory abilities of human touch, but putting them together using only skin-like materials,” said Zhenan Bao, KK Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering and lead author of the study appearing in the journal.

“A lot of that challenge came down to advancing electronic skin-like materials so that they can be incorporated into integrated circuits with enough complexity to generate nerve-like pulse trains and low enough operating voltage to be used safely in the human body,” said Weichen Wang, a PhD candidate in the lab of Bao, the first author of the paper, who has been working on this prototype for 3 years.

What was the goal?

The goal was a smooth integrated circuit capable of mimic the mechanism of sensory receptors and function at low voltage. Wang’s first attempts demanded more than 30 volts and could not get enough functionality out of the circuit. “This new electronic skin works with only 5 volts and can detect stimuli similar to real skin,” he claimed.

artificial skin

Artificial skin will be essential for new-age prosthetics, which not only restore movement and functions like grasping, but give sensory feedback that helps the user control the device precisely.