Artificial Skin - Ana

I've been reading many articles lately and found two that especially caught my eye. Both of the articles are regarding improving prosthetic's to give amputees a more accurate and life like sense of touch. Now researches believe that in the not very distant future, using a two-ply of flexible, thin plastic they will be able to enhance prosthetic limbs so that they could feel the sensation of touch, as if it were the real thing (see figure 1).

Multiple research teams have long worked on restoring touch to people with prosthetic limbs. So far the researchers at Stanford University were able to send signals to the brain tissue of mice, which closely mimicked the nerve messages of touch sensors in human skin, by creating electronic sensors. Another breakthrough happen two years ago, when researchers at Case Western Reaserch University in Cleveland, Ohio, gave people with prosthetic hands a sense of touch  by wiring by wiring pressure sensors on the hands to perpheral nerves in their arms. Although, a rudimentary sense of touch has been restored with those previous advancements, the sensors and signals used are very different to the ones being used now, the ones sent by mechanoreceptors which are the natural touch sensors in the skin. That difference being, that when mechanoreceptors sense pressure, they send a stream of nerve impulses; the more pressure, the higher the frequency of those pulses is (see figure 2). However, the previous tactile sensors have been analogue devices, meaning that with them more pressure produces a stronger electric signal, alternatively to a more frequent steam of pulses.

Zhenan Bao, a professor at Stanford University, made it clear that "having the ability to build a synthetic skin that can mimic the function of touch" will have many upsides among the being "the ability to not only restore the sense of touch medically but also enable tremendous opportunities to inspire new electronic material development, new forms of electronics" them ranging from automobiles, to wearable electronics. However, while reading these articles I couldn't help thinking that there was something more this research could possibly lead to. Which includes the group of people affected by this development; and whether that group was only limited to amputees. So, I started thinking if third degree burn victims would also be able to benefit from this, if they could be able to also feel in their burned area(s) again; seeing as they have no feeling in those area(s) anymore, because of the damage done to their nerve endings.

Figure 1:   

A photograph of the skin with flexible artificial mechanoreceptor insets.
Credit: Bao Research Group, Stanford University

Figure 2:

    A video of  Zhenan Bao talking about Artificial Mechanoreceptors

   for intuitive touch

              Credit: Bao Research Group, Stanford University

Word Count without citations: 450

Works Cited:

• "Prosthetic Limbs Could Have Artificial Skin That Really Feels." Popular Science. N.p., 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.popsci.com/better-artificial-skin-for-mind-operated-prosthetics>.
• Newbern, By Elizabeth. "Artificial Skin Could Give People with Prosthetics a Sense of Touch." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Nov. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.livescience.com/52693-artificial-skin-creates-sensation.html>.
• "Sensors May Soon Give Prosthetics a Lifelike Sense of Touch." Science. N.p., 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/sensors-may-soon-give-prosthetics-lifelike-sense-touch>.
• "Burns." Johns Hopkins Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/dermatology/burns_85,P01146/>.