RAINBOW VISION

New E-Skin Lets Robots ‘See’ More Color Than Human Vision

Yet another tool for the robot uprising.

One day, all robots might be able to see in technicolor—but not through their eyes. Instead, they’ll be able to see through their skin.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed an electronic skin that could allow machines to detect light ranges beyond human eyesight. The e-skin is made of tiny semiconductors on a flexible plastic material, allowing engineers to apply it to most surfaces. The team believes that this has a wide range of applications from robots working in light sensitive environments to even wearables for humans.

"Mechanical arms used for manufacturing in light-sensitive environments, for example, could become capable of detecting when conditions change and the safety or effectiveness of their work is put at risk,” Ravinder Dahiya, an electronics engineer at the University of Glasgow and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.

The semiconductors used in the skin are made of a metal called gallium arsenide that’s often used in electronics. However, it’s mostly been applied to rigid surfaces—not flexible ones. Luckily, the Glasgow researchers were able to develop a technique that allows them to print gallium arsenide semiconductors onto a bendable material.

Once applied, the e-skin takes just 2.5 milliseconds to measure the light—which ranges on the electromagnetic spectrum from ultraviolet, to visible light that humans can see, to infrared. Dahiya added that the e-skin could also be used in wireless communications tech due to its fast response times.

Aside from giving machines yet another tool in the inevitable robot uprising, the Glasgow team also said in the press release that it could be used to help develop a wearable patch for humans to track their exposure to UV light and “provide a warning when users are at risk of getting burned.” So no, it won’t allow you to see colors you can’t already see. But it could save your skin on your next beach outing.

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Tony Ho Tran

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