Artificial skin senses touch and heat

In a big step towards the development of prosthetic limbs that feel real, two research groups have developed artificial skin containing touch and heat sensors

Prosthetic limbs have come a long way in the past 25 years. People who lose an arm or a leg can now be fitted with sophisticated prostheses that interface with the nervous system directly, which read the brain signals related to planning movements and translate them into commands for the device, enabling the user to control their replacement appendage by merely thinking about it.

Neurally-controlled prosthetic devices can vastly improve quality of life for amputees and paralysed patients, by helping them to move and regain at least some of their independence. Ultimately, though, researchers hope to develop devices that provide sensory feedback to the user - this would not only allow for more accurate control of the prosthesis, but would also enable the user's brain to incorporate the artificial limb into its model of the body and take full ownership of it, so that actually feels more like a part of the body than a cumbersome add-on.