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New malleable 'electronic skin' self-healable, recyclable

As I searched through all the different articles to post a blog on, several of them caught my eye. However this particular article regarding "electronic skin" immediately grabbed my attention because of the numerous possible applications such a discovery could have on the medical community and how similar it was to an idea I had several years ago. With the recent advancements in cellular regeneration, I had the idea of lacing bandages with stem cells in hopes to assist in the healing process and possibly speed it up. The scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder have taken an idea similar to mine but have added a technological twist to it. They have created an artificial skin using robotics called E-skin, and although it may not be used to help heal wounds directly like I envisioned my idea would, it has helped in the fields of prosthetics as well as minor applications in daily medicine. 
The article mentioned the movie Terminator and how after the main villain has been shot or stabbed we see his skin regenerating within seconds to its almost perfect form. The scientist in Boulder said that "While the new process is not nearly as dramatic, the healing of cut or broken e-skin, including the sensors, is done by using a mix of three commercially available compounds in ethanol."

Another things that I found completely amazing was the application to robotics and human interaction. As we continue to make giant advancements in the field of robotics, it is hard to deny the fact that one day robots with perform task such as watching over our children.“In that case you would integrate e-skin on the robot fingers that can feel the pressure of the baby. The idea is to try and mimic biological skin with e-skin that has desired functions.”

B. Brimhall 


Comments

  1. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 3:22 PM

    You really think that a robot could take a human role in caring for a child? I personally disagree because I have been able to be involved in studies on children and would say that if we went that route, child development and relations would be different. Children need care and feeling as part of their upbringing which would not be the case with a robot as it is needed as human interaction. I do find it very interesting and beneficial that they are able to be used in such a way to accelerate our healing process and reparation of the skin. That is a technology that, if can be cheap enough for the public, could change many things. Very interesting topic and well stated.

    -Tyler H.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 5:26 PM

    I hope that society never gets to the point where parent/child interactions are replaced by care-giving robots, but, unfortunately, many children today are already more influenced by the television and social media than by their parents. Behavioral psychologists, like Dr. Prem, and many parents are concerned that robots and technology are creating an ill-mannered generation through instant gratification and lack of manners. As a result, even Amazon is trying to address the issue by allowing parents to turn on a "politeness" setting on Alexa, so that children have to say please. As for the medicinal benefits of e-skin, I like the possible uses of e-skin and foresee it decreasing patient recovery time and chance of infection by sealing the wound and promoting healing. I'm interested to see what is done with e-skin and wonder if allowing NICU babies to lie on e-skin would positively affect the infants health, since babies that have skin contact with their mothers and/or fathers tend to maintain homeostasis more consistently.

    Baig, E.C. (2018). Kids were being rude to Alexa, so Amazon updated it. USA Today.
    Prem (2016). Is technology making children of today rude. Life Improving Guide.

    ReplyDelete

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