Electronic skin

Medicine, soft robotics and wearable electronics are just a few of the fields that could benefit from a new hydrogel that's applied to the body. The transparent material can sense when it's being touched, bent, heated, or otherwise manipulated.

Although VR tech may allow users to see and hear computer-generated environments, the extent to which people can feel those worlds is still quite limited. That could be about to change, though, thanks to what's being called an "epidermal VR" system.

A number of groups have already developed so-called "electronic skin," which adds electronic functionality to a user's natural skin. A new magnetic take on the technology, however, does away with the need for integrated electronics and power sources.

It's not uncommon for us humans to communicate via pokes and other skin-on-skin gestures. Could the same thing work for communicating with devices? It turns out that if you give those gadgets a coating of "Skin-On" artificial skin, the answer is Yes.

A human-sized robot has been equipped with 1,260 cells to create what is claimed to be the first autonomous humanoid robot with artificial skin covering its entire body.

A new "artificial skin" simulates a sense of touch via tiny air bladders.

Whether they're in airplane wings, bridges or other critical structures, cracks can cause catastrophic failure before they're large enough to be noticed by the human eye. A strain-sensing "skin" applied to such objects could help, though, by lighting up when exposed to laser light.

​We've already heard about flexible electronic "skins" that could give robots or prosthetic limbs a human-like sense of touch. Now, however, scientists from the University of Texas at Arlington are claiming to have developed a skin that's even more touch-sensitive than our own.

Various research institutes have already developed skin-applied electronics, that are simply adhered to the user's body. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, however, have taken a different approach. They've developed a method of 3D-printing custom electronics directly onto the skin.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have developed an electronic skin embedded with a host of sensors that can be bent and twisted to custom fit its owner. If it gets damaged, the e-skin can be healed, and it can be completely recycled at the end of its useful life.​​

The latest electronic skin to cross our desk is promises greater flexibility and a more compact form than earlier solutions, by making use of an innovative spider web-patterned coil system that enables it to be bent in any direction.

Through a special organ on their snouts, pit vipers can sense the body heat of their prey. Scientists have developed an artificial skin that uses a similar mechanism​ and could allow prosthetic limbs to detect changes in temperature, or make a smart bandage that can warn of infection.