Wearing a prosthetic limb was never so great before the 20th century. They were usually wooden, and would quickly fall apart. Today, however, to our good fortune, we now have prosthetics that can be controlled with our minds, can even predict movement and fit the wearers arm perfectly due to 3D printing.
But even the most advanced technology today can be improved. The wearer is not given so much feedback about what they are touching, such as feelings of textures and temperatures.
For this very reason, researchers at John Hopkins University have decided to create a new artificial skin that allows wearers to actually feel pain, as well as other sensations in their electronic limb.
The researchers used human skin to create an electronic version of human skin, and designed their device to transmit two sensations, the curvature and sharpness of an object. They made the e-dermis out of rubber and fabric, and adding layers of sensors.
The researchers taught the e-dermis to be able to encode the same sensations that real human skin does. By making them for life like, it could protect them from external damages.