The scientists team at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology made a breakthrough by creating an artificial skin that can sense touch, humidity, and temperature. The researchers managed to find a way to make flexible sensors that can be integrated into electronic skin, or e-skin, from the gold particles and resin.
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| Professor Hossam Haick (pictured above) and his team at Haifa's Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a device that allows people with prosthetics to sense touch and environmental changes like humidity and temperature. It's flexible sensor made out of gold particles and resin that can be embedded in electronic skin, or e-skin. (Picture from: http://www.dvice.com/) |
If they can learn how to embed the e-skin on prosthetic legs or arms, people who have amputated leg or arm may be felt again the changes in their environment. The findings are published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, in June 2013.
The electronic skin secret lies in the ability of the sensor to detect three kinds of data simultaneously. The ability was more advanced than the current e-skin, which can only detect touch.
"The invention of our team can feel the touch, humidity, and temperature, as do genuine skin," said lead researcher Professor Hossam Haick. "The new system is also at least 10 times more sensitive to touch than the system-based e-skin touch there right now."
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| Basic principle of the artificial skin. (Picture from: http://www.dailytech.com/) |
Scientists have long competed to create flexible sensor, but the difficulty of adapting the detector is in daily use. To use the flexible sensor must be able to work on low voltage to be compatible with a portable battery. Another requirement is to measure the pressure in a wide range, and can measure several things at once, including humidity, pressure, or chemical substances. The sensor must also be produced quickly and cheaply.
The Technion team's sensor meets all the criteria. The secret is to use a single layer covered with nano particles with 5-8 nanometers in diameter and the layer was made of gold nano particles and surrounded by connective molecules called ligands.
"Indeed, the development of the artificial skin as biosensor by Professor Haick and his team is another breakthrough that puts nanotechnology at the front of the diagnostic era," Dr Nir Peled, head of the Thoracic Cancer Research and Detection Center at Israel's Sheba Medical Center, commented. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SCIENCEDAILY | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4299]
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