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‘Electronic Skin’ Developed to Recreate Sense of Touch

新加坡研究人员开发出具有触觉的电子皮肤

By Bryan Lynn
09 August 2020

Singapore researchers say they have developed a form of "electronic skin" that can recreate a sense of touch.
新加坡研究人员表示，他们开发出了一种可以再造触觉的“电子皮肤。”

The developers hope their invention will give people with prosthetic hands the ability to identify different objects.
开发人员希望他们这个发明可以赋予假肢使用者识别不同物体的能力。

A team from the National University of Singapore created the skin device, which measures 1 square centimeter. The system contains 100 small sensors that attempt to recreate things like texture, temperature and even pain.
新加坡国立大学的一个团队研发出了这种皮肤设备，其尺寸为1平方厘米。该系统包含100个小型传感器，这些传感器试图重现纹理、温度甚至疼痛等。

The researchers call the device Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin, or ACES. They say it can process information faster than the human nervous system.
研究人员将该设备称为异步编码电子皮肤。他们称其信息处理速度超过了人类神经系统。

Machine learning methods trained the device to recognize 20 to 30 different textures. It can even correctly read Braille letters 90 percent of the time, the developers say.
机器学习方法训练该设备识别二三十种纹理。开发人员表示，它识别盲文的正确率甚至能够达到90%。

Research team leader Benjamin Tee told the Reuters news agency that the system does not require movement to work. "Humans need to slide to feel texture. But in this case the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness."
研究小组负责人本杰明·蒂对路透社表示，该系统无需移动就能工作。“人类需要滑动才能感觉到质感。但是这种电子皮肤只需要轻轻一按，就能检测出不同粗糙度的质地。”

A demonstration showed that the device could identify the difference between a soft, squishy ball and a solid plastic one.
演示表明该设备可以识别出湿软的球和坚硬的塑料球之间的区别。

"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb... and prosthetic users face that problem," Tee said. "So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft... "
蒂表示：“当你失去触觉时，你本质上就会变得麻木。而假肢使用者也将面临这个问题。所以通过给他们的假肢设备再造一种人工皮肤，他们就能在握手时感受到温暖和柔软。”

Tee said his idea for the device came partly from the movie Star Wars, when character Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and it is replaced with a robotic one. In the film, the new hand is able to experience touch sensations just like the real one.
蒂表示，他设计该设备的理念出自于电影《星球大战》，当其中的角色卢克·天行者失去右手时，取而代之的是机械手。在这部电影中，这只新的机械手可以像人手一样感受到触觉。

The artificial skin technology is still going through experiments and development. But Tee said there had already been a lot of interest in the system, especially from the medical community.
这种人造皮肤技术仍在试验和开发当中。但是蒂表示，该系统已经引起了多方关注，尤其是来自医学界的关注。

Tee said similar inventions that his team has developed include see-through skin that can repair itself when torn and a material for wearable electronic devices that gives off light.
蒂表示，他的团队已经开发出类似发明，包括能够在撕裂时自我修复的透明皮肤，以及一种可用于可穿戴设备的发光材料。

I'm Bryan Lynn.
我是布莱恩·林恩。

Words in This Story

prosthetic – n. an artificial device that replaces a missing or injured part of the body

texture – n. the way something feels when you touch it

Braille – n. a form of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

detect – v. discover or notice something

squishy – adj. soft when pressed

numb – adj. unable to think, feel, or react normally because of something that shocks or upsets you

character – n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show

*内容来源51VOA.COM原创翻译，侵删~

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