Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic arm inspires artificial skin

(credit: Bao Research Group, Stanford University])

In recent years, prosthetics have improved by leaps and bounds, allowing amputees and people with paralysis to literally leap and bound—plus drink beer with their minds. But one feature of functional limbs has been out of robotic reach: the sense of touch.

Now, researchers have edged closer to providing that sense, revealing today an artificial material that can mimic the pressure sensing capabilities of skin. The flexible material, reported in Science, could one day blanket fake limbs or paralyzed body parts to restore a person’s ability to feel.

The sense of touch is critical to the human experience, said coauthor Benjamin Tee, an electrical and biomedical engineer at the Agency for Science Technology and Research in Singapore. Restoring feeling in amputees and people with paralysis could help them carry out normal activities, such as cooking, playing contact sports, and, you know, fighting the empire. Tee, a Star Wars fan, told Ars that he has wanted to make artificial skin ever since watching The Empire Strikes Back, in which Luke Skywalker gets a prosthetic arm after being injured in a fight with Darth Vader.