Researchers developing artificial 'smart skin' that responds to touch, temperature

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Augmenting Humans.

Anna Maria Coclite is developing artificial skin, even more sensitive than our own. For burn victims and beyond, this "smart skin" has the potential to restore sensation to our body's largest organ.

About Anna Maria Coclite

Anna Maria Coclite is a professor in the Department of Physics, University of Bari Aldo Moro, in Italy. Prior to her current post, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an associate professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics.

Her research interests focus on materials science and advanced methods for thin film growth, including thin film technologies, nanomaterials and surface chemistry. In 2016, she was awarded a grant from the European Research Council to work on sensors for artificial skins.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Anna Maria CocliteRelated TED Talk: The world's rarest diseases — and how they impact everyone

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