In the possibly near future, prostheses will allow humans to feel objects as if they were touching them with their own skin. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed an “electronic skin” very close to its organic model.
Recreating the sense of touch with electronics and algorithms is the feat achieved by a team of researchers in Singapore, who have developed a synthetic skin that reproduces the tactile sensations of real skin. Called ACES (for “asynchronous coded electronic skin”), this device integrates more than 100 sensors in a space of one square centimeter.
The same sensations as normal skin
This synthetic skin is able to recognize 20 to 30 different textures, for example the softness of an anti-stress ball or the hardness of plastic. It can even read Braille letters with 90% accuracy. ” Humans need to run their fingers across a surface to feel its texture », Explains a researcher. ” With our skin, it only takes a simple touch to detect a texture with different roughness ».
This device has a future in prosthetics, which will allow users to feel the warmth and sensations of what is soft, what is hard, and everything in between! According to Benjamin Tee, who oversaw the development of the product’s artificial intelligence algorithm, the idea for this electronic skin came from … Star Wars !
At some point, and without wanting to spoil too much what everyone else knows anyway, Luke Skywalker loses his right hand. It is replaced by a robotic hand, without the Jedi losing the tactile sensations of his hand. The technology developed by these researchers has every chance of success, and although it is still in the experimental stage, it is already generating a lot of interest in the medical community.
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