Inventor creates human-skin-like sensors

The impressive new touch-sensitive material is created using arrays of transistors made of nanowires.

Developed by Professor Zhong Lin Wang, the new technology is 15 times more sensitive than traditional touch mechanisms and has immediate applications in a variety of human-machine interfaces. The sensitivity, resolution and density of the sensors are in fact so great that they are comparable to that of the skin on an actual human finger.

Wang is hopeful that his invention will one day be used to create human-like skin sensitivity in artificial limbs and in the short term it could serve as an interface for smart phones or as a way to let people input their signature in to a computer.

Arrays of transistors made of nanowires could form the basis of a new class of devices nearly as sensitive to mechanical force as human skin is, according to research published today in Science