A new form of artificial skin, threaded with a network of artificial sensors, could recreate the sense of touch for people wearing prosthetic limbs, researchers revealed on Tuesday.

據美國《時代周刊》報道，研究人員12月9日透露，一種植入傳感器網絡的新型人造皮膚能讓戴假肢的人重獲感知體驗。

Researchers in Korea and the U.S.have developed a new form of ultra-thin sensors that can pick up sensations of heat, pressure and moisture, MIT Technology Review reports. The sensors are malleable enough to be woven into a thin layer of polymer. The breakthrough, researchers say, came when they packed the skin with enough sensors, up to 400 per square millimeter, to recreate the sensations of human touch.

據美國《麻省理工科技評論》雜志（MIT Technology Review）報道，韓國和美國的研究人員研發出了一種超薄型傳感器，能感知外界的溫度、壓力和濕度。這種傳感器有足夠的柔韌性，能被植入一層超薄的高分子聚合物。研究者表示，這種高分子聚合物材質的突破性進展在于，其每平方毫米的傳感器數量高達400個，足夠讓假肢獲得真實的感知體驗。

“If you have these sensors at high resolution across the finger, you can give the same tactile touch that the normal hand would convey to the brain,” said contributing researcher Roozbeh Ghaffari.

該項目研究人員魯茲貝·加法里（Roozbeh Ghaffari）說：“如果手指假肢能夠配置擁有如此高分辨率的傳感器皮膚，大腦就可以接收到與正常手指幾乎相同的觸覺反饋。”

Still, they cautioned that the skin was still several breakthroughs away from becoming a commercial product. Most crucially, scientists need to puzzle out better ways of wiring the skin into the wearer’s nervous system, so that no feeling is lost as the skin transmits its finely tuned signals to the brain.

然而，研究人員謹慎表示，要想成為商業產品，這款人造皮膚還需解決幾個問題。當務之急，就是科學家們必須找到連接傳感器和神經系統的更好途徑，建立持續穩定的連接，讓大腦真正獲得完全對應的感知體驗。

（翻譯：smartypants 編輯：欽君）