Sign in

Electronic skin that responds to touch by lighting up

Researchers have developed new paper-thin electronic skin, or e-skin, that responds to touch by instantly lighting up. The more intense the pressure, the brighter the light it emits, scientists said.

Updated on: Jul 23, 2013, 01:59:26 IST
PTI | By , Washington DC
Share
Share via
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
Copy link
  • copy link

Soon, robots may become more touchy-feely, literally!


Researchers have developed new paper-thin electronic skin, or e-skin, that responds to touch by instantly lighting up.

HT Image
HT Image

The more intense the pressure, the brighter the light it emits, scientists said.

A research team led by Ali Javey, University of California, Berkeley associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences created the first user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic.

“With the interactive e-skin, we have demonstrated an elegant system on plastic that can be wrapped around different objects to enable a new form of human-machine interfacing,” said Javey.

The latest e-skin builds on Javey’s earlier work using semiconductor nanowire transistors layered on top of thin rubber sheets.

In addition to giving robots a finer sense of touch, the engineers believe the new e-skin technology could also be used to create things like wallpapers that double as touchscreen displays.

Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, Nepal, UK, Bangladesh, Russia and US Iran war Live, get all the latest headlines in one place on Hindustan Times.