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Plastic skin feels the force of touch

22.10.2015

Stanford University engineers have created a plastic "skin" that detects the force of touch and generates an electrical signal that conveys this information to living brain cells.

Seventeen specialists led by Professor Zhenan Bao, who has been working on this direction for ten years, have developed a material that mimics such properties of human skin as plasticity and healing ability. In addition, the invention includes a network of sensors that sense and send information about touch, temperature, and pain to the brain. Ultimately, this development should find application in prosthetic limbs.

According to Ms. Bao, for the first time, it was possible to obtain such a material capable of detecting pressure and transmitting signals to the nervous system. The top layer creates a sensitive mechanism. At the same time, the sensitivity of the sensors is the same as that of human skin. That is, artificial skin is able to easily distinguish between a light touch of a finger and a handshake, for example. The underlying layer transports electrical signals and converts them into biochemical stimuli compatible with nerve cells.

Artificial skin has billions of carbon nanotubes embedded in it. When pressure is applied to the plastic, the nanotubes "squeeze" closer together, allowing them to conduct electricity (the more pressure, the higher the current value).

Flexible electronic components were developed by engineers from PARC. When developing the interface for the interaction of electronics with neurons, the technique of Karl Deisseroth, a well-known specialist in the field of optogenetics, was used.

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Indeed, even now airliners can take off and land, as well as fly on autopilot with the help of an on-board computer, without human intervention. And the number of pilots on a conventional passenger plane has already been reduced from three to two. Sinnett added that Boeing's interest in unmanned technology is also driven by a shortage of pilots around the world, a problem that will become more acute as global demand for air travel continues to grow.

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