Artificial Skin to Give People With Prosthetics a Sense of Touch: Study

Researchers have developed a new artificial skin that can 'feel' similar to the way a fingertip senses pressure, and may help people perceive sensation in their prosthetic limbs.

Researchers were able to send the touching sensation as an electric pulse to the relevant "touch" brain cells in mice. The stretchy, flexible skin is made of a synthetic rubber that has been designed to have micron-scale pyramid like structures that make it especially sensitive to pressure.

Scientists sprinkled the pressure-sensitive rubber with carbon nanotubes - microscopic cylinders of carbon that are highly conductive to electricity - so that, when the material was touched, a series of pulses is generated from the sensor.

The series of pulses is then sent to brain cells in a way that resembles how touch receptors in human skin send sensations to the brain, 'Live Science' reported.

"We were able to create [a system] very similar to biological mechanical receptors," said Benjamin Tee from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore.

In order too test whether the skin could create electric pulses that brain cells could respond to, the scientists connected the synthetic skin to a circuit connected to a blue LED light.

When the skin was touched, the sensor sent electric pulses to the LED which pulsed in response. The sensors translated that pressure pulse into an electric pulses. As the sensors in the skin sent the electrical pulse to the LED - akin to touch receptors in real-life skin sending touch-sensation signals to the brain - a blue light flashed. The higher the pressure, the faster the LED flashed.

The research was published in the journal Science.