Research takes cue from “Star Wars”

For all the futuristic innovation that Science Fiction films boast on the big screens, who would have thought that they would become the inspiration for research?

For a team of researchers in National University of Singapore, that’s exactly how they started working on their groundbreaking ‘electronic skin’, a newfound hope for those who had lost their ability to feel, to regain that.

Taking inspiration from a Star Wars scene where Luke Skywalker regains touch with a robotic hand, the researchers recreated touch on prosthetic skin using more than 100 small sensors. To date, their invention can feel 20 to 30 different textures and read Braille letters with more than 90% accuracy.

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