'Smart skin' technology breakthrough heralds virtual reality you can feel

Smart Skin technology allows people to virtually touch A research team has created a patch people can wear that allows them to feel the touch of someone or something remotely.

TORONTO — Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois have developed a wireless system that adds the sense of touch to any virtual reality experience, which they have dubbed “smart skin.”

The smart skin system communicates touch through programmable miniature vibrating components that are embedded into a soft, flexible material according to a press release.

Researchers John Rogers and Yonggang Huang co-led the research which they say has diverse applications from long-distance relationships to entertainment and prosthetics.

“It feels like a gentle sensation of touch, it’s not a forceful poking,” Rogers said on CTV’s Your Morning Friday.

Huang and Rogers’s smart skin patch has 32 individually programmable components that resonate at 200 cycles per second “where the skin exhibits maximum sensitivity.”

The patch wirelessly connects to a touchscreen, like a phone or tablet, so when the user touches the screen the pattern of touch transmits to the patch in real-time.

The technology has already been used to assist veterans using prosthetics, stroke victims who cannot swallow and monitoring premature babies’ vital signs once they leave neonatal intensive care.

“There are some powerful opportunities [to use smart skin] in rehabilitation,” Rogers said, citing their work with stroke victims relearning to speak and swallow.

“The idea of using these kinds of concepts to improve human health is something that is really motivating us to develop the technology,” he said.

Rogers said that they have begun exploring the addition of hot and cold sensations to the patch to heighten the experience.