In a breakthrough, Stanford University scientists have successfully tested a soft, flexible patch of electronic skin as thick as a piece of paper, offering hope to amputees and those with skin damage. The scientists led by Zhenan Bao, who published their study in the journal Science, have tested the e-skin on a rat.
The e-skin is a device that works by mimicking human skin. It is made of a thin and stretchy rubbery material with electronic circuits and sensors that measure pressure and temperature. Soft and flexible, it can be wrapped around a human finger. The team of researchers behind the discovery has been working on a monolithic e-skin for some time. Their challenge was not so much finding mechanisms to mimic the sensory abilities of human touch, but bringing them together using only skin-like materials.
In humans, nerves detect sensations and then transmit these signals to the brain. In its test, the team connected the e-skin to the animal’s nervous system. They then attached electrodes to a patch of the rat’s brain that regulates touch and temperature. When they put pressure on the device, the rat’s brain sent signals to the region that controls movement. When the researchers sent signals to the rat’s leg through an insertable artificial synapse device, the leg moved.
