The finer touch: when ‘artificial skin’ is more sensitive than the original

Subject: S&T

Section: Awareness in IT

Context:

Researchers at TU Graz in Austria have received funding to examine real life applications for their successful ‘artificial skin’ prototype that can reportedly ‘feel’ more than the real thing. The synthetic skin project is an attempt to emulate at least some of the functions that skin performs.

About Artificial Skin

Artificial skins are a series of materials that try to emulate the functionality of our skin.

What is the SmartCore Project?

Dr. Coclite and her team had succeeded in developing a three in one “smart skin” hybrid material, which closely resembles human skin by simultaneously sensing pressure, moisture and temperature and converting them into electronic signals.
With 2,000 individual sensors per square millimetre, the hybrid material is more sensitive than a human fingertip, giving it its reputation, and, at 0.006 millimetres thick, many times thinner than human skin.
The team says that by reacting to these three human sensory impressions, the smart skin prototype surpasses all electronic skin materials on the market to date which only react to pressure and temperature.
Further, “Human skin has a resolution of one millimetre square. So this means that if you have an object that is one millimetre square or bigger, you can feel it with your finger. With the device that has been produced, we were able to even measure the electrical current from a pixel that was 0.25 millimetre square, smaller than one millimetre square.

Materials Used

One is a piezoelectric material which when compressed or stretched, generates an electric current. This type of material for example, is the one that allows the artificial skin to sense force or pressure.
The other material that is also very fundamental in this is the smart polymer that changes thickness depending on humidity and temperature, and in particular, these two materials have been combined in various nano rods.
So very, very, very small rods in which the polymer is in the middle and the piezoelectric material is on the outside. When the polymer expands, because the temperature or humidity changes, it applies a pressure on the piezoelectric material, and then consequently, an electrical current.

Applications

One area of practical application is prosthetics. The artificial skin could cover the prosthetics and help the patient with the amputation regain sensation.
Smart skin could also be used as a sensor with smart watches, when it is programmed to collect precise information about the health status of patients. In this way, skin moisture, pH value and temperature could be continuously monitored.