Scientists inspired by Star Wars create artificial skin that can 'feel'

Scientists have been inspired by Star Wars to created an electronic skin that can 'feel' other things.

The scientists hope their invention can be used to help people who use prosthetic limbs, by helping them to feel the shape of an object, if they're hard or soft, or even if things are hot or cold.

It could be used to help improve robots.

The artificial skin, called Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin (or ACES for short) is only one centimetre in size but it's made up of around 100 tiny sensors.

The scientists became inspired after watching a scene from the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back, in which Luke Skywalker loses his hand, and has it replaced by a robotic one, which can feel things when it touches them just like human skin can.

So far the electronic skin can recognise around 20 to 30 different textures, and can even read Braille - a type of writing used by blind and visually impaired people - with a 90% accuracy.

"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb and prosthetic users face that problem," said Dr Benjamin Tee, who led the team of scientists.

"So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand."

The robotic skin is still in the test stages, but Dr Tee said there has been a "tremendous interest" in their invention.

The technology was first invented by the team in 2019, but they are now able to showed off how the technology can be used in prosthetics and to help teach robots about touch sensations.

Benjamin's team of top scientists are from the National University of Singapore, and they've also invented a type of transparent skin that can repair itself, and a flexible material that gives out light.

However, they aren't the only ones working on creating electronic skin that can feel. Last year, a team from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea created a similar product that could feel pain and other sensations.

Researchers at Stanford University in the United States have also been working on a sensitive type of electronic skin.