‘Smart fingertips’ could allow for virtual surgery | KurzweilAI

Semiconductor devices capable of responding with high precision to touch and finger movement are a step towards creating surgical gloves for use in medical procedures such as local ablations and ultrasound scans.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and Dalian University of Technology used ultrathin, stretchable, silicon-based electronics and soft sensors mounted onto an artificial “skin” and fitted to fingertips.

The team hopes to incorporate the devices into a smart glove with the flexibility of skin that creates virtual sensations of everything from texture to temperature.

“Imagine the ability to sense the electrical properties of tissue, and then remove that tissue, precisely by local ablation, all via the fingertips using smart surgical gloves,” said co-author of the study Professor John Rogers.