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Scientists Are Developing Artificial Skin, Could Improve Prosthetic Limbs
A new study shows that scientists may actually be closer to creating artificial skin that is able to actually feel.
Researchers say that a sense of touch is important for developing robots that can navigate the world, and it could improve prosthetic limbs for amputees, as well. However, artificial human skin is remarkably difficult to engineer, and given that skin is sensitive to the lightest of touches.
According to study researcher Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University, the sensor is more sensitive to pressure than human skin.
"If you use your finger to touch your skin or hand, the pressure applied is in the kilopascal range," Bao said, according to LiveScience, referring to a unit of pressure. "Our sensor can detect pressure that is a few hundred times less than that gentle touch."
Bao and her colleagues have been working on electronics inspired by human skin for years. In 2010, they announced the development of an extra-sensitive pressure sensor made with ultrathin rubber. But that device didn't have a flexible transistor, which is thesemiconductor that transmits the signal from the sensor.
The new device is a transistor made of a flexible polymer semiconductor, Bao said.
"If we have a layer of rubber, and we apply pressure onto the rubber, the rubber will deform," she said. "And when it deforms, it will change the amount of charge it can store. These charges will impact the current flow into the transistor."
The sensor works even when curved, as around a body part. Bao and her colleagues tested their device on a man's wrist, and found they could take his pulse with more far more sensitivity than by laying fingers on his artery.
Fingers held to a pulse point can only detect the strongest push of blood through a vessel. The flexible sensor can also detect a second, weaker wave of blood being bounced back from the extremities, and a third wave that can provide a measurement of the stiffness of the artery. Stiff arteries can be a sign of damage from diabetes, or cholesterol buildup.
The next step for Bao and her co-researchers is to make the device wireless, and thus less cumbersome for continuous medical monitoring. Ultimately, she said, the goal is to enter sci-fi territory: building artificial skin that can sense and feel.
"To actually make artificial skin, we still need to be able to connect the sensors with neurosystems, so that the sensor signal can be transmitted to the human brain," Bao said. "That will be a big challenge."
Nevertheless, she said, the team is making progress. In 2011, they developed a stretchable touch sensor, and in 2012, they created a version that could self-heal from scratches.
"My students love 'Star Trek' and 'Iron Man,'" Bao said. "Those science fiction movies give them inspiration, and make us more innovative and creative."
The findings for the study can be found in a paper published May 14 in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/6845/20130514/scientists-developing-artificial-skin-improve-prosthetic-limbs.htm
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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