Robotics and engineering have advanced so much over the past decade that it is now possible for a person to replace his/her amputated limbs with a robotic prosthetic limb, awesome, right? Sure it is lads and lassies. The downside with prosthetic legs is the lack of any form of feeling, but this could change with bionic skins.

A research group at the University of Tokyo created a bionic skin that is equipped with multiple pressure and temperature sensors. This e-skin could eventually find itself on robots, which would allow our future overlords to measure the human vital signs when touched. Such a robot would perform well in the health department, but beware of deadly injections for robots secretly hate us.

Furthermore, e-skin could be used on prosthetic limbs for much needed sensitivity, which is not found in what is available today. How would this work? We’re not sure, but we’re guessing the human nerve endings would have to connect with the e-skin to create an electric connection. Hey, this is just a theory on how it might work, so don’t chastise us if we’re wrong.

Additionally, humans could replace their own skin with e-skin. OK, maybe not an outright replacement, but probably covering the real skin with e-skin. It could give humans new abilities such as being able to use the sensitivity of the skin to tell what kind of substance is in the air, or protection from radiation in the coming apocalypse.

What would you need an e-skin for? Fire away.

[via Spectrum IEEE]