http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2013.191.html
In a related development to Berkeley’s touch responsive e skin, Georgia Tech Professor Zhong Lin Wang has proposed a new “piezo-phototronic” approach to the human-machine interface. Zinc-oxide nanowires serve as tiny LEDs which have an emission intensity dependent on the local strain put on them. The nanowire array could act as artificial skin for robots to give them human-like touch sensitivity. Additional uses include inkless fingerprint scanners, biological imaging, or performance enhancement of micro-electro-mechanical systems. ApplySci hopes that this technology will find its way into body tactile sensors in the near future.
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