Smart Skin: Perceive the Real World

The previous column introduced the neural prostheses that can be controlled by mind. The high-tech that is to be shared today is to further upgrade the nerve prosthetics - the intelligent skin with perceptual ability.

This is a smart skin developed by the research team of Seoul National University in Korea. After stretching on the prosthetic limb, it can bring a “feel” to people with disabilities.

This "feel" can sense pressure, temperature and moisture. The researchers tested it in a variety of situations, including typing, taking hot water and cold water, and shaking hands. It even distinguished wet diapers and dry diapers.

In terms of materials, smart skin has no special features, most of which consist of a flexible, transparent silicone material called polydimethylsiloxane.

The key to the tactile sensation is the built-in ultra-thin, monocrystalline silicon nanobelts in the silica gel with sensor arrays, including pressure sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, strain sensors, group heat heaters and other nerve stimulation sensors.

The role of pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors is well understood, allowing smart skin to quickly experience the high local thermal strain generated by external stimuli, creating a feeling of proximity to the real skin of the human body in contact with the outside world.

Take a closer look, the humidity sensor is actually made up of capacitors. When the polymer around the capacitor absorbs moisture, it changes the ability of the polymer to store charge. Once the capacitor detects this change in storage capacity, it relies on this change to determine the humidity in the surrounding environment.

In other sensors, the role of the strain sensor is to send a feedback about the state of the skin, such as when the real skin is moving, the smart fake skin also moves. The role of the heater is to rely on skin-like temperature profiles to make the perception of the prosthesis more realistic.

Currently. The research of the Seoul National University team is still at the point of “making smart skin feel”. Next, they will also study how to transmit the feeling of the skin to the human brain, which makes people feel this feeling.

In this regard, as we have already introduced in our column, researchers have developed techniques that allow the brain's nervous system to connect with the prosthetic. If this neural prosthetic technique can be further extended to the palm, then it can really The skin of the human brain feedback will soon make a breakthrough.

Of course, in addition to people with disabilities, this skin can then be used in the robotics industry to create robots that have a perception that is closer to humans.

At that time, what kind of world would it be?

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