Don’t knock the robots, you might hurt more than their feelings.
Your back page correspondent is fascinated by robots.
This could be attributed to the countless hours as a child spent watching Lost in Space instead of doing homework or learning the violin.
More recently, the dystopian world of HBO’s Westworld has held sway, and my how prescient that series is proving to be.
To wit: We have recently learned of a team of engineers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who are developing an artificial skin for robots that will “bruise when it gets hit”.
According to research published in Applied Materials & Interfaces, pressing, bumping or shocking the artificial skin will activate a “colourful hydrogel that forms a big purple spot as if it were really bruising”.
While this feature could prove handy in ascertaining one’s progress when fighting off a killer automaton, the real reason for this research has a medical application.
The boffins reckon the technology could prove helpful for folks wearing prosthetic limbs. Without the sensory feedback provided by a flesh and blood limb, those using a prosthetic limb are less likely to realise if they have bumped into something and potentially hurt themselves and damaged that device.
So far, the technology is more in the proof-of-concept phase and the fake skin has only been tested on small areas of artificial body rather than on an entire limb. And how well it may work on different skin tones has yet to be established.
Still, it seems we’ve come a long way from R2-D2 and C-3PO in a very short time.
If you see something that’s just a little freaking uncanny, email: felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au.
