A new type of sensor could lead to artificial skin that someday helps burn victims ‘feel’ and safeguards the rest of us, University of Connecticut researchers suggest in a paper in Advanced Materials.
Our skin’s ability to perceive pressure, heat, cold, and vibration is a critical safety function that most people take for granted. But burn victims, those with prosthetic limbs, and others who have lost skin sensitivity for one reason or another, can’t take it for granted, and often injure themselves unintentionally.
Chemists Islam Mosa from UConn, and James Rusling from UConn and UConn Health, along with University of Toronto engineer Abdelsalam Ahmed, wanted to create a sensor that can mimic the sensing properties of skin. Such a sensor would need to be able to detect pressure, temperature, and vibration. But perhaps it could do other things too, the researchers thought.
“It would be very cool if it had abilities human skin does not; for example, the ability to detect magnetic fields, sound waves, and abnormal behaviors,” said Mosa.
Mosa and his colleagues created such a sensor with a silicone tube wrapped in a copper wire and filled with a special fluid made of tiny particles of iron oxide just one billionth of a meter long, called nanoparticles. The nanoparticles rub around the inside of the silicone tube and create an electric current. The copper wire surrounding the silicone tube picks up the current as a signal. When this tube is bumped by something experiencing pressure, the nanoparticles move and the electric signal changes. Sound waves also create waves in the nanoparticle fluid, and the electric signal changes in a different way than when the tube is bumped.
The researchers found that magnetic fields alter the signal too, in a way distinct from pressure or sound waves. Even a person moving around while carrying the sensor changes the electrical current, and the team found they could distinguish between the electrical signals caused by walking, running, jumping, and swimming.
Metal skin might sound like a superhero power, but this skin wouldn’t make the wearer Colossus from the X-men. Rather, Mosa and his colleagues hope it could help burn victims “feel” again, and perhaps act as an early warning for workers exposed to dangerously high magnetic fields. Because the rubber exterior is completely sealed and waterproof, it could also serve as a wearable monitor to alert parents if their child fell into deep water in a pool, for example.
“The inspiration was to make something durable that would last for a very long time, and could detect multiple hazards,” Mosa says. The team has yet to test the sensor for its response to heat and cold, but they suspect it will work for those as well. The next step is to make the sensor in a flat configuration, more like skin, and see if it still works.
Among the authors of the paper are Esraa Elsanadidy and Mohamed Sharafeldin from UConn, and Islam Hassan from McMaster University, and Professor Shenqiang Ren from State University of New York at Buffalo.
Learn more: Artificial Skin Could Give Superhuman Perception
The Latest on: Artificial skin
[google_news title=”” keyword=”artificial skin” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Artificial skin
- Myth that tan skin looks healthier persists for a third of young adultson May 2, 2024 at 10:41 am
Nearly a third of Americans (32%) think that a tan makes people look better and healthier, a dangerous beauty standard that can increase a person's risk of skin cancer, poll results show.
- 'My skin is tighter and softer': Grab this popular anti-aging retinol cream for $14 — that's over 40% offon April 29, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Retinol products can easily cost $25 and up for a teeny amount of formula. This jumbo tub is packed with 16 ounces — so that comes out to a mere $1 and change per ounce! Thanks to the additional 20% ...
- Toxic chemicals from microplastics can be absorbed by the skin, study findson April 26, 2024 at 8:20 am
A new study used 3D human skin-equivalent models to examine how flame retardant additives in microplastics are absorbed by the skin. The findings show that several flame-retardant additives passed ...
- Global Regenerative Artificial Skin Industryon April 25, 2024 at 6:28 am
Global Regenerative Artificial Skin Industry is expected to be valued at US$ 2,185.5 Million in 2022 projected a CAGR of 9.9% By 2032 ...
- Artificial intelligence tools improve skin cancer diagnostic accuracyon April 18, 2024 at 6:00 am
A Stanford Medicine-led meta-analysis revealed that artificial intelligence algorithms can help healthcare practitioners diagnose skin cancers more accurately.
- The Best Soaps for Sensitive Skin in 2024on April 16, 2024 at 7:05 am
Branded content. Us Weekly has affiliate partnerships so we may receive compensation for some links to products and services. Anyone with sensitive skin knows how important it is to use grooming ...
- Japan cosmetics maker develops tech for spray-on ‘artificial skin’on April 11, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Tokyo-based cosmetics maker Kao Corp. has developed technology to create spray-on “artificial skin” that could be used to conceal moles and other facial blemishes. It said the Fine Fiber ...
- Bionic artificial skin returns tactile senseson April 4, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Researchers in South Korea have developed a human-implantable tactile smart bionic artificial skin that can restore permanently damaged tactile senses. Damage to nerve tissue causes loss of sensory ...
- Developing artificial skin that can regenerate skin and transmit sensation at the same timeon April 4, 2024 at 7:16 am
If the damage is severe enough that natural healing is not possible, surgical treatment is required to implant artificial skin in the affected area, but the artificial skin developed to date has ...
- Developing artificial skin that can regenerate skin and transmit sensation at the same timeon April 3, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The figure above shows the components of the artificial skin Crack-based tactile sensor, Wireless powered pressure-frequency modulation (WPPFM) circuit, and neural interface electrodes of the ...
via Bing News