Important Innovations

Johns Hopkins' Breakthrough Electronic Skin Imagine a prosthetic limb that can have a sense of feeling.  Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have created e-skin or electronic skin.  It's made of fabric and rubber-laced with sensors to mimic nerve endings. For the person using a prosthetic hand, e-dermis recreates a sense of touch.  It also recreates a sense of pain by sensing stimuli and sending impulses back to the peripheral nerves.  The pain function is very important because it protects the user from injury and the prosthetic limb from damage.  Providing that important functionality of touch is a significant tech breakthrough. Based On Biology Human skin contains a complex network of receptors that relay a variety of sensations to the brain. The researchers used the network as a biological template for their work.  They made a sensor that goes over the fingertips of a prosthetic hand and acts like the person's own skin would with receptors sensing touch and