A skin like material has been created by engineers from Stanford University. The material, which senses pressure and sends information to brain, could pave the way for creation of prosthetic limbs. The creators have named the material ‘virtual skin’.

As per the engineers, the virtual skin is a flexible fabric that has a number of sensors. It can be put over body’s prosthetic part to make it work like a real skin. Zhenan Bao, a Chemical Engineering Professor at the Stanford University, confirmed the development and said that it is the first time when a flexible real skin like material has been created to sense pressure. The virtual skin senses touch and transmits signals to brain at the same time.

The engineers used two different layers to create the virtual skin. Its top layer does sensing, while the second layer works to transmit electrical signals to the nervous system. According to Bao, “The researchers spent last 10 years in developing a material that can resemble the functions of human skin. It is more than difficult to replicate something that flex freely, can heal and send information of touch in human brain in artificial way”.

About five years ago, Bao and other researchers explained how plastics and rubbers could be used to sense pressure. That time, they said that it is possible to measure pressure by the natural springiness of molecular structure of the material.