Tactile Enhancement
May 12, 2020 | Terry Sharrer
Chinese engineers have shown how a silvery material used to make an ultra-thin sensor can enhance the sense of touch, as might be the case with a surgeon wearing latex gloves. “The research team got inspiration from how spiders feel very slight movements, which they do thanks to cracks in their exoskeletons. The new device has similar tiny cracks within a layer of silver that is the core of the sensing mechanism. As the silver is slightly flexed, the cracks change the overall conductivity of the metal, which can be detected in real-time and converted to a stronger sensation. By wearing this technology on the fingers, it gives healthy people the ability to feel heartbeats by just touching someone’s body.” MORE
Image Credit: Rongrong Bao and Stanford Materials Science and Engineering