What we feel with our fingertips isn't just about the surface. In the depths of objects there is a lot of information that our senses can decipher. Example: a vigorous greeting can reveal to us the robustness of the interlocutor's bones, and with a little insistence, we can even detect the tension of his tendons.
Starting from this marvelous human ability, a group of scientists has created something extraordinary: a bionic finger unlike any previous one.
What's different about it?
Contrary to the sensors Previously tactile that only sensed external shape, stiffness and texture, these bionic fingers can reveal subtle details beneath the surface, tracing three-dimensional maps of internal structures.
The heart of the system is a carbon fiber touch sensor. When compressed against a rigid object, the sensor returns a stronger signal. By repeatedly squeezing the sensor in each position, you can feel different levels of pressure revealing even the smallest details, such as any hard layers within softer materials.
The tests
The researchers tested the bionic fingers on various complex objects over the course of three phases (Find the study here).
In the first, tested their ability to detect and map a hard letter “A,” just beneath a layer of soft silicone. They even tested the ability to distinguish between hard and soft internal materials and an external silicone coating.
In the second stage, researchers have created a 3D physical model of human tissue. Three layers of hard polymer mimicked the “skeleton,” and an outer layer of soft silicone mimicked the “muscles.” Results? The bionic fingers successfully scanned and reproduced a 3D profile of this model, including the location of a “blood vessel” located beneath the “muscle” layer.
In the third and final stage, the fingers were tested on a faulty electronic device. How did it end? They allowed us to create a map of its internal components and how they broke down. All this, simply by touching it from the outside.
Bionic fingers that touch the future
A “super touch” with incredible potential. Zhiming Chen, a co-author of the study and an engineer at Wuyi University in China, imagines that this technology could be incorporated into robot fingers and prosthetics, but that's not all.
The research team is already planning the next applications, pushing the boundaries of innovation even further to make surfaces of all kinds "hypersensitive". It could be a significant breakthrough for medicine, robotics and other fields that require a detailed understanding of internal structures.
The era of tactile engineering is just beginning.
