New E-Skin Lets Robots Feel

A newly developed electronic skin may allow robots to feel long before they can think.

Developed by researchers from the University of Tokyo in Japan, the new e-skin can sense changes in pressure and temperature and is made using organic transistors that are inexpensive and easy to produce. More importantly, the Japanese team says their e-skin is more flexible and more easily moldable than other e-skins being developed.

The researchers speculated that if they could lower the voltage requirements, it might be possible to use the e-skin on human patients like burn victims who have lost their sense of touch. With further refinement, they say that the e-skin could be given superhuman abilities, making it able to sense light, humidity and sound.

The team's research is presented in the August 15 issue of the journal for the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences.

--Ker Than

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Credit: Takao Someya/University of Tokyo