Smartest electronic skin with ‘brain’ could be magnetic miracle for humans, robots
Scientists at a German research lab have created an ultra-thin, flexible electronic skin (e-skin) that can detect and track magnetic fields using a single global sensor.
Unlike previous designs that required multiple sensors and electronics, this new e-skin is more energy-efficient and mimics how human skin interacts with the brain.
What makes this innovation more exciting is that it enables touchless interactions. So, using this e-skin, you could operate devices in wet, extreme, or sensitive environments (like underwater or in sterile labs).
This e-skin has the potential to give robots a sense of touch through magnetic fields, allow humans to interact with digital environments (virtual reality) without any physical controllers, and help people with sensory impairments regain certain abilities.
How does the e-skin work?
Traditional e-skins rely on multiple sensors, batteries, and electronic components, making them bulky, power-hungry, and impractical. To overcome these limitations, the researchers designed an e-skin that works more like human skin.
It has three components: First is the ultra-thin, flexible membrane that acts as the base structure of the e-skin. It is made of a lightweight, transparent, and breathable material that allows air and moisture to pass through so the real skin underneath can breathe.
The second is a magnetosensitive layer that covers the entire surface of the electronic skin. It detects and processes magnetic signals using a single analysis unit, similar to how human skin sends signals to the brain.
So, whenever the e-skin comes near a magnetic source, the magnetosensitive layer reacts, causing a change in the electrical resistance of the material. This change is picked up by the central processing unit, the third component, which then determines the exact location of the magnetic source.
Basically, the magnetosensitive layers “work like a single global sensor surface — just like our skin, and the single central processing unit reconstructs the signal — just like our brain,” the study authors note.
For accuracy in source detection, the e-skin utilizes a tomography-based signal processing method. This approach is inspired by MRI and CT scan techniques; it helps refine the accuracy of the signal by analyzing multiple data points, similar to how medical imaging methods reconstruct a detailed image from different angles.
“This technology is new for e-skins with magnetic field sensors – it was previously considered too insensitive for a low signal contrast of conventional magnetosensitive materials. The fact that we validated this method experimentally is a major technical achievement of the work,” Pavlo Makushko, lead researcher and a scientist at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), said.
One skin, many applications
What makes the novel e-skin developed by the HZDR team special is that it mimics how the real human skin and the brain work together to process touch. Previous e-skins struggled to track magnetic signals accurately because traditional materials had low signal contrast.
The use of tomography solves this problem. Moreover, it can be used by both humans and machines, making it a highly practical innovation.
For example, it could allow a user to control their phone with a magnetic patch on a glove, even in freezing weather or amidst heavy rainfall.
Moreover, An e-skin with a human-like touch and great magnetic sensitivity could make robots better equipped for tasks such as cooking, rescue operations, deep-sea explorations, patient care, etc.
Further, “blind individuals equipped with the magnetoreceptor system could extend the distance of their perception, and those with prosthetic hands could use it to interact with smartphones, overcoming the challenge of insulated prosthetics not being able to interact with capacitive touchscreens,” the study authors added.
There could be many other possibilities. This e-skin could soon become commercially available and change the way we interact with everything around us.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Smartest electronic skin with ‘brain’ could be magnetic miracle for humans, robots