Touch-sensitive rubber skin

By sandwiching a precisely molded, highly elastic rubber layer between two parallel electrodes, the team from Stanford University created an electronic sensor that can detect the slightest touch.

"It detects pressures well below the pressure exerted by a 20-milligram bluebottle fly carcass we experimented with, and does so with unprecedented speed", said lead researcher Zhenan Bao, an associate professor of chemical engineering. "The key innovation in the new sensor is the use of a thin film of rubber molded into a grid of tiny pyramids."

Source: robaid.comAdded: 8 November 2010