Chinese scientists create machine fingers that touch and feel like human hands
- A new sensor that mimics a human fingertip can tell users what texture they are touching in real time
- Eventually, scientists hope to take it to the next level and allow people with prostheses to feel what the sensor detects

“Such a system is expected to promote the sensing technologies of robotics and prosthetics, and is potentially useful for the sensory recovery of patients wearing artificial prostheses, haptics-based virtual reality and consumer electronics,” the researchers said.
The sensor is attached to the fingertip of a prosthetic hand. When it slides on various textiles, the signal is sent to a computer and analysed by a machine learning method. Currently, the recognition result is shown on a screen.

In the new study, the team has developed a sensor that detects both static pressure and high-frequency vibrations. The researchers said this single-sensor system was more simple and robust than existing ones that required two sensors integrated with two sets of data acquisition systems.