E 'was built in the laboratory and was now called "e-skin", the artificial skin a thousand times more sensitive than human. E 'was obtained thanks to nanotechnology by two independent research groups that have used different types of materials. Either way, described in the journal Nature Materials, has led to a "skin" that could be used to give sensitivity to future robots and feel similar to humans, to coat implants of new generation or more for new touch screen technology.
The new material more sensitive to human skin is composed of new-generation pressure sensors, placed on a layer formed by a very flexible polymer. The two groups that have worked this goal are both in California: the University of Stanford Zhenan Bao and co-ordinated by the University of California, Berkeley led by Ali Javey.
"Our sensors are more sensitive than human skin," says Zhenan Bao. "A gentle touch of the skin - adds - corresponds to a pressure of about 0.1 grams applied to a square millimeter of surface area. Our sensors are 1,000 times more sensitive, they feel pressure to fly a very light (20 milligrams) that posing on them. "
is not the first time, of course, that you work with artificial skin, many research groups worldwide are working on it and it's a race to produce 'skin' most sensitive and as flexible as possible because it assumes the appearance and capabilities of the human. In robotics for many years working with sensors that mimic human senses, sight and hearing about a lot of progress has been made to smell and touch the work is more complex.
The challenge of developing a technology as sensitive as human skin has been taken successfully by Bao and Javey, who created, with different methods and technologies, ultra-sensitive touch sensors, available on flexible surfaces and therefore well suited to the complex human reality ( eg implants). Both groups have built ultra-sensitive sensors and high reactivity to touch, ie rapid response capacity in a few milliseconds. This is a huge leap forward compared to previous attempts.
But ideas do not end there and there is still room for much research to make artificial skin more and more human-like in terms of sensitivity, for example, says John Boland, Trinity College Dublin in the same journal commenting on the two research could enrich the artificial skin sensors for temperature and humidity, or even create sensors that simulate the feeling of hair follicles and scalp.
spaces applications are enormous, Boland said, not only the prosthesis or robotic, "The artificial skin could be used to develop precision instruments that enhanced in human skill and dexterity, tools that could be used for example in minimally invasive surgery. Other potential applications include touch screen technology. Whatever the application - the expert concludes - these sensors are low cost and ultra-sensitive, designed on flexible substrates and in this sense the work of Bao and Javey represent a milestone in the development of ultra-sensitive touch technology. "
Source: notizie.tiscali.it / articles / science /
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