Let There Be Electronic Skin

Forget electronic ink, scientists have now developed electronic skin! Well, kinda. It’s a material that’s made out of semiconductor nanowires (more than 10,000 times thinner than a human hair), and then a thin sheet of rubber is placed on the wires. Depending on how much pressure is placed on the skin, that dictates the flow of electricity. With that, you can pretty much replicate the ability to “touch” something.

The goal of the research, being conducted out of Berkeley, is to one day be able to give people who have prosthetic limbs the ability to electronically “touch” and “feel” again.

You layer a prosthetic hand with this electronic skin, and then that person can once again, I don’t know, feel if a fruit is ripe again. I’m trying to think of things you touch that I could reasonably say here.