Two Research Groups Create 'Electric Skin'

Flash Modin writes "Two separate teams, one from UC Berkeley and the other from Stanford, have created distinct types of artificial skin that could find uses in prosthetics or artificial intelligence (Data in First Contact, anyone?). The first team coupled organic electronics with an elastic polymer to make electric skin that could sense a butterfly landing on it (abstract). The second team put a flexible material over a conductive rubber compound which had transistors implanted in it. The device can sense touch when the rubber is compressed, changing the electrical resistance (abstract)."

Comments

Use with prosthetics

[iONiUM]

I guess everyone's first thought will be that they can use this with prosthetics so someone with a fake limb can actually feel. But, I don't see mention of how this could possibly connect to human nerves. Is that kind of thing even possible?

On a separate note, it would probably be annoying considering many prosthetics these days are still really crappy. Until we have a true cyborg limb that can respond to nerve signals, and indeed respond with this fake skin's input, it seems kind of useless. Maybe there's another use I'm missing?

Re:Use with prosthetics

[Ukab the Great]

Actually my first thought was sensory enhanced black latex cat suit that electrocutes bad guys.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[cygnwolf]

^ This. Truthfully though, without any mention of how it could talk to a nervous system and back, I think the best it'll do is being a new form of input for robots, esp. ones that are working with delicate tasks.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[danlip]

Not only possible but fairly trivial. You don't have to tie directly into the nervous system, you can use the electrical signal to stimulate another patch of skin, and the brain will quickly learn to interpret the signal properly. But it is also possible (but less trivial) to tie directly into the nervous system - this is done on a regular basis with cochlear implants, and there are a few experimental retinal implants now too.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[DontLickJesus]

While this may not be able to simulate human feeling, this could have implications on having limbs react with normal reflexes

Re:Use with prosthetics

[sea4ever]

I don't see mention of how this could possibly connect to human nerves. Is that kind of thing even possible?

If I remember correctly, prosthetics connecting directly to nerves pop up in the news from time to time. There's an article from SingularityHub on something like this. here it is.
That fake limb in the article can feel, it has no skin though. So maybe now that there is electric skin we can put them together and get a cyborg arm.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[IndustrialComplex]

Maybe there's another use I'm missing?

Robotics.

It's been a while since I designed any robots, but there is a big problem with robots in general in that unless you explicitly design sensors to detect something, it won't.

I can't get into the applications here (there are just too many) but having the ability to feel objects not perfectly lined up with the robot's programmed path could help prevent a lot of injuries.

Imagine a robot with this skin wrapped around it, as it moves, it comes into contact with something that it shouldn't have (Some guy), it immediately can stop that motion and hopefully just bruise the guy instead of just continuing mindlessly and slicing the guys arm off or crushing him to death.

That's just an off the top guess, but I would also very much like a robotic grasping arm that could sense pressure. It's easy to design something to grasp, and maybe even put in some resistance (ie: hooke's law), but getting a feel for the force it exerts and the exact positioning of that force could be very useful.

Imagine a grasping arm that doesn't need to be perfectly aligned with an object and could react to the thing it was grasping (ie: reducing the movement of one 'finger' if it felt the object slipping) being able to compensate for a misaligned object could be very useful.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[Anonymous Coward]

My first thought was how could they incorporate this into Fleshlights.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[j00r0m4nc3r]

it immediately can stop that motion and hopefully just bruise the guy instead of just continuing mindlessly and slicing the guys arm off or crushing him to death.

This sounds like a pretty useless robot to me.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[IndustrialComplex]

This sounds like a pretty useless robot to me.

I billed it as a feature, but robot Nixom demanded that the tax-nonpayers be delivered intact to the Pain Monster. Something about 4 limbs being necessary for a quartering.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[GarryFre]

Mine was can it double as a bug zapper for mosquitoes and other pests?

Re:Use with prosthetics

[VanGarrett]

I guess everyone's first thought will be that they can use this with prosthetics so someone with a fake limb can actually feel. But, I don't see mention of how this could possibly connect to human nerves. Is that kind of thing even possible?

This is something which is already done with some current prosthetic limbs. Nerve endings from severed limbs are surgically transplanted to convenient mounting locations. Simple pressure-sensitive structures on the surface of the prosthetic fingers then transmit a signal to the contacting device on the other end of the artificial limb, which in turn, transfer that data to the transplanted nerve ending, by applying equivalent pressure. The prosthetic device is stimulating the same nerves that the original hand did, so the user experiences the sensation as though he still had it, with no need to re-learn signal patterns. Some cutting-edge prosthetics can also pick up nerve signals, and move at the command of the mind, rather than requiring the user to do something more awkward, such as wearing a pressure-sensitive insole in his shoe, and adjusting his balance, every time he wants to lift a spoon to his mouth.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[Cstryon]

Also, if they couldn't properly connect it to the nervous system, the patch of skin it stimulates could be on the same arm, maybe under where the prosthesis fits. It may be my elbow feeling the tingle, but after a while, I will adapt to recognize that tingle as being somewhere on the back of my fake hand.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[vidnet]

From TFS: The second team put a flexible material over a conductive rubber compound which had transistors implanted in it. The device can sense touch when the rubber is compressed, changing the electrical resistance

My first thought was that this was resistive based touch technology -- that's sooo last year! And surely skin must be one of the best applications for multi-touch.

Re:Use with prosthetics

[Anonymous Coward]

Flamebait? Really? Where does that come from?

Re:Use with prosthetics

[Anonymous Coward]

You had me at 'black latex cat suit'.

I Sing the Body Electric

[florescent_beige]

Will my electric grandma have this?

Re:I Sing the Body Electric

[mcgrew]

Does your grandma dream of android sheep?

Re:I Sing the Body Electric

[master_p]

Does your grandma dream of iSheep?

What color?

[Halifax Samuels]

How long will it be before anybody develops artificial skin that matches anybody's skin color other than slightly tanned white males?

Re:What color?

[oodaloop]

If they can't make Band-Aids like that, why would they be able to make artificial skin like that?

Re:What color?

[countSudoku()]

The future is now with every color available! Why just be one race, that's not just boring, it's racist. Plus; electroluminescent tattoos with themes. What could possibly go wrong?

Re:What color?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference between male and female skin color?

Re:What color?

[FauxPasIII]

> How long will it be before anybody develops artificial skin that matches anybody's skin color other than slightly tanned white males?

Oh, I think pale asian female will probably be along soon enough.

Re:What color?

[sea4ever]

Can't they just use dye/ink within/beneath the 'skin'? Like real skin does? (Except it's not dye but is something-or-other-which-I-can't-remember)
I doubt that the dye would disrupt it in any way. According the the summary it's a plastic polymer over something electric-ey, so the plastic bit most probably could be any color/texture you want.

Re:What color?

[Megahard]

Personally, I would like skin that could put on a color display like a cuttlefish.

Re:What color?

[Mister Whirly]

A penis.

Re:What color?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well obviously reality has a slightly tanned white male bias :D

However they are also perfectly able to make band-aids with cute things on them so obviously reality also has a cute things bias XD

Maybe most of (but absolutely not all) the Arabs, Persians, Africans, and Latinos can do something about it when they take a break from killing people? :3 Some of them have been trying to get a break from their fellow men but they keep being pushed down by their own, and even that part can seldom be admitted openly, by anyone :|

Looking forward to the "+1/-1 Reality Is Racist" mods, but ask yourselves about the band-aids instead of shooting the messenger :)

I predict artificial skin with cute tattoos will be out many decades before non-tanned, non-white, artificial skin. Perhaps centuries :o

Be careful with the transport

[Drakkenmensch]

These electrical skin granting systems are inFamous for their tricky deliveries. Last time the delivery boy opened the package en route, hilarity ensued.

My first thought

[MagikSlinger]

Was thinking about teledildonics.

Or the Major from Ghost in the Shell.

But that's not really mutually exclusive. ;-)

First Contact

[SOOPRcow]

Nerd point of order: Data's new skin in First Contact was actual organic human skin grafted over his exoskeleton.

Re:First Contact

[mcgrew]

Data's new skin in First Contact was actual organic human skin grafted over his exoskeleton.

I think that was his point -- that in some ways we've surpassed what Star Trek's writers could imagine just a short time ago. Like Star Trek II when McCoy couldn't cure Kirk's age related presbyopia; all he would have had to do would be transport Kirk's lenses out of his eyes, and transport a CrystaLens in its place.

I have one in my left eye (although they used a needle to remove/replace, of course). It not only cured my steroid-induced cataract, it cured my extreme myopia and my age-related presbyopia. If I'd had astigmatism it would have cured that too. I'm 58 and don't have to wear any corrective lenses at all after wearing thick glasses all my life.

But Star Trek's writers couldn't envision a focusable artificial lens, and had Kirk wearing reading glasses.

Re:First Contact

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair Bones did mention Kirk was allergic to "retnax" which would have been the standard treatment. So the writers did cover themselves somewhat there.

Re:First Contact

[IndustrialComplex]

But Star Trek's writers couldn't envision a focusable artificial lens, and had Kirk wearing reading glasses.

It is also sometimes a 'gift' to the actor. A lot of times the actor DOES have a problem that we don't have a current solution for but the 'future' world likely would. Rather than punish the actor by having them attempt to do a scene without glasses, or expect them to not suffer from arthritis, they will write in either some impediment to what we would expect the cure to be, or write in a new disease we aren't familiar with and thus can't think of a quick 'future' fix.

Re:First Contact

[mcgrew]

I'm sure that's true in a lot of cases, but an actor on the soundstage doesn't need reading glasses because he's not really reading. It makes no difference if he can actually see the book; the book is just a prop.

Re:First Contact

[Anonymous Coward]

You assume the actor knows the lines and isn't actually reading them. Shatner's classic stuttering monologue style was merely a way of coping with the limited amount of text that could fit on the teleprompter at once.

Re:First Contact

[bar-agent]

You assume the actor knows the lines and isn't actually reading them. Shatner's classic stuttering monologue style was merely a way of coping with the limited amount of text that could fit on the teleprompter at once.

No, Shatner knows his lines. That is important to his sense of professionalism, according to an interview I read recently (which I think was posted here on Slashdot.)

Re:First Contact

[IndustrialComplex]

No, Shatner knows his lines. That is important to his sense of professionalism, according to an interview I read recently (which I think was posted here on Slashdot.)

He had to. One day the teleprompter was sabataaged. Shatner, being the consumate professional, memorized the entire script for all characters and communicated it to the rest of them via sign language.

Re:First Contact

[bar-agent]

One day the teleprompter was sabataaged. Shatner, being the consumate professional, memorized the entire script for all characters and communicated it to the rest of them via sign language.

He was able to disguise the sign language so it looked like he was just hamming it up for the camera. The viewers didn't notice. That's just how good he is.

Re:First Contact

[Anonymous Coward]

He feeds Chuck Norris his lines.

OMG DATA

[eyenot]

The butcher was running around in some person's SKIN the whole time!!?!?!!?!

yes cause the usa army needs more recruits

[Anonymous Coward]

this way you gt a arm blown off just go get a new one

No Worries Here

[lymond01]

These will be easy to spot. It'll likely be future developments that create the real problem for the Connor family.

Resistance is futile

[Anonymous Coward]

"It would appear you are attempting to graft organic skin onto my endoskeletal structure."
"What a cold description for such a beautiful gift."

        - Data and Borg Queen, before she stimulates his new skin graft

(courtesy of Memory-Alpha)

Make Robots feel pain!!!!

[jameskojiro]

Now we can make them feel pain and keep them in line.

Annoying: "X, anyone?"

[ZaphDingbat]

Does anyone else find the phrasing "X, anyone?" REALLY REALLY annoying? It sounds like a smarmy game show host. "Hint hint, wink wink," that sort of thing.

This could have literally millions of applications

[deepthoughtless]

...everything from watch construction, to watch repair.

nope

[Anonymous Coward]

this will be used on humans to make them feel pain and keep them in line, and in the light of what u just said u probably deserve it.

I said "Ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel"

[lewoot]

"Babygirl, turn me on with your electric feel"

And on the real side

[whitroth]

If they can get signals from the "electric skin" to normal nerves, this might be seriously important to folks who've had burns over a large part of their bodies, so that they can feel again (house or industrial fires? car wrecks? wars?)

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