Electronic skins (e-skin) are not new in the world of IT, they are electronic materials that are like human skin with many more properties.
Some of these are changing colors and acting as portable displays or having thermally controlled heating capabilities.
Korean researchers have managed to add the ability to "smell" along with detecting human touch.
There have been many previous attempts to build e-skin that is as close as possible to a human organ, however, this new design brings efforts closer to achieving this goal.
Researchers at the Global Frontier Program of MSIP have developed an “olfactory” e-skin that senses both touch and smell. This e-skin was created with the mechanicalproperties of nanocomposite materials and can simultaneously detect biological and tactile stimuli, just like human skin.
This new development can not only help robots have flexible electronic skin like humans, but they can also smell things around them and perceive tactile stimuli just like humans.
Beyond that, it can also help in the development of medical applications, which will be extremely useful when it comes to skin grafts in the event of an accident or burns.
source: iguru
