Unleashing The Electronic Skin That Can Control Objects Virtually

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I would want to believe that we all have a prior knowledge of what "skin" is, so I will not explain that. We may have also heard of the advances in bionics, which have heralded the designing of The Electronic skin (e-skin).

Before now, the e-skin has been thought or used therapeutically to aid people with damaged skin (maybe by accident). But technology has moved a little further than that into the era where bionics meets Virtual reality. I unveil to us the e-skin that can give the wearer the ability to control objects remotely without touching them.

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The nature of the e-skin

This particular design came as an enhancement to the earlier bionic skin made by Dr Takao Someya (University of Tokyo). The design of the skin is that which incorporates cutting-edge technologies; making the skin ultra light, bendable, and soft; which makes it wearable without much difference to the biological skin.

This should not be confused with the synthetic skin, which has the purpose of being used as a replacement or substitute for skin graft (for people with damaged skin).

The e-skin has been shown to be able to control objects using virtual reality technology (feels like having telekinetic abilities).

Awesomely enough is the fact that this new e-skin can create electro-magnetic interferences, which makes it possible for them to manipulate objects through magnetic interactions. These interactions are dependent on the varying voltage emitted by the e-skin, and the angle tilted by the hand of the wearer. Just like the image shown below (controlling light bulb with the electronic skin).

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Still on the nature of the e-skin; it comes with a specifically designed operating system which enables the alteration of the angle of tilt of the wearer; thus initiating a new command.

One of the reviewers to this tech had this to say:

This technology is not designed as a replacement to the virtual reality technology, but a complementation to it - Dr Gilbert Bermudez (Helmholtz-Zentrum-Dresden-Rossendoft Institute) [Paraphrased by me]

That means; this technology will potentially bridge the divide between the "main reality" and the "virtual reality" (It could be farewell to VR gloves soon; thanks to e-skin).

Altering the virtual reality

Before now, the majority of the virtual reality devices use depth-resolution cameras to track and detect motion. And the challenge here is that; even with a very high resolution tracking-camera, it is almost impossible to detect subtle motions with accuracy, not to talk of gestures. But the e-skin has arrived with a different technology. Now the virtual devices would be manipulated electro-magnetically as against using tracking-camera resolutions.

Let us look at few applications of this technology

Current and potential applications of the e-skin

• In our homes: Here's a little scenario I painted to buttress the application in our homes: You come home late at night, open the door by just a wave at the door. When you've entered the house, oops!! everywhere's dark; you swipe your hand over the air and light's on (without touching anything). That's just a little to what e-skin can help us do in our homes. Believe me; in the nearest future, almost every device in our homes would be incorporated with e-skin complainant VR tech, and we would manipulate them remotely. Did I mention that you can type on a virtual keyboard with the e-skin? Yes you can.

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• In medicine: This e-skin can potentially be applied in the area of prosthetics to control bionic and robotic body parts. When this happens, it would not just be a case of controlling bionics with the mind, but with the VR tech.
• In gaming: Imagine playing game without game consoles, Just  by moving your hand. This is what the e-skin can achieve. You would directly interact with the gaming environment.
• In industries: Yes we've heard about "automation" right?, but automation could get better if there's a human controlling it, not just leaving it to run at the mercy of programmed software. This e-skin could be used to control the automation process. For example; in a motor assembly plant, the wearer of the e-skin could control the robotic arms that do the actual assembly.

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Future advances

There are some areas that need to be fine-tuned in the future, and I would just point out the major one. There should be a miniaturization of the magnetic field, so that; even the slightest movement of the fingers could effect an instruction to the VR world.

Well, I wouldn't mind to have a feeling of this kind of e-skin. Who wouldn't want to be telekinetic?

Thanks for reading

References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4

gif by @foundation