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Robotic Skin Lights Up When Touched

Posted by samzenpus on from the touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch-me dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have designed a super-thin flexible skin that lights up when touched. 'Thinner than a sheet of paper, the skin is made from layers of plastic and a pressure-sensitive rubber. A conductive silver ink, organic LEDs, and thin-film transistors made from semiconductor-enriched carbon nanotubes are sandwiched between the layers. Applying pressure sends a signal through the rubber that ultimately turns on the LEDs, which light up in red, green, yellow or blue. Instead of using the material to create bodysuits for Burning Man or other illuminated party tricks, scientists suggest that it might be used for smart wallpapers, health-monitoring devices, or in robotics. The type of interactive pressure sensor developed by the Berkeley scientists could also be useful in artificial skin for prosthetic limbs'"

14 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Wallpaper? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    Only if you like extremely low-res images on your walls.

    I'm still waiting for 4x8' sheets of electronic wallpaper with decent resolution and at least 15-bit of RGB/CYMK colors.

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    1. Re:Wallpaper? by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 1

      Circle: See circle:
      I'm in my 50's; I've seen the progression from punched cards, paper tapes & music ruled output to vty terminals etc.
      More importantly from Green screen, text only, to CGA then Radius rotatable Hercules, through various iterations to VGA/XGA and beyond.
      I had an Amstrad monitor, connected to a 80286 pc with a .24 dot pitch 14" monitor, which had a better resolution than modern huge, fuck off, HDMI lcd/led tellies.
      Apart from the thinness what's the advantage? Oh wait, just remembered; I'm blind as a Mole in the sunlight. Doh!

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  2. Burning Man by crakbone · · Score: 2

    " Instead of using the material to create bodysuits for Burning Man or other illuminated party tricks, scientists suggest that it might be used for smart wallpapers, health-monitoring devices, or in robotics" "many respectable physicists wouldn't stand for that sort of thing, "partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties." - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    1. Re:Burning Man by CoolHnd30 · · Score: 1

      Nice quote :)

  3. New Tech's "old reliable" standby: by millertym · · Score: 1

    Pr0n. You can bet the perv industry is always interesting in anything containing the description of "robotic", "skin", and "Lights up when touched".

  4. Trojan might make use of this. by NeoMorphy · · Score: 1

    Can it also prevent STDs?

    1. Re:Trojan might make use of this. by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 1

      Can it also prevent STDs?

      Most likely cause STDs... "Ooh shiny, must fuck..

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      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
  5. Reminds me of Data from Star Trek,... by Selur · · Score: 1

    when the Borg Queen transplanted some of her skin onto Data (-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_HSYB3EPNk)

  6. Is that ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... a flashlight in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me?

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  7. "Robotic" skin??? by Fieryphoenix · · Score: 1

    Please. This is a material, and is no more robotic than rubber, which you can also cover a robot with.

  8. New and improved by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    The Fleshlight will now come in a new Fleshlightlight version! And if it's too heavy, they're also planning a lighter version called the Fleshlightlightlite.

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  9. Skin-implanted displays by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    Instead of smartphones, we could have smartwrists and literal palm pilots.

  10. ooh... by Jay+Maynard · · Score: 1

    ...WANT.

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  11. Flickercladding? by CoreDump · · Score: 1

    Hmmm... sounds like I've read about this somewhere....

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