A new electronic skin—a rubbery plastic-and-graphene film mimicking the structure of human skin—can detect texture, temperature, pressure and sound, reported Hyunhyub Ko, a materials scientist at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. This marks the first time anyone demonstrated an e-skin to sense so many different kinds of stimuli, which makes this incredibly impressive and innovative, said Alex Chortos, materials scientist, Stanford University. Detecting Signals Ko and colleagues designed the e-skin to identify many types of signals by mimicking the ultrasen­sitive skin of human fingertips. The researchers placed a soft ridged film over bumpy plastic-and-graphene sheets about the thickness of a few layers of plastic wrap. Touching the e-skin pressed electrodes on the bumpy sheets together caused current to flow through the device, which was hooked up to an electrical signal measuring machine. The amount of current depended on how much the bumps squished together, giving the researchers a sensitive way to gauge pressure. Read more at Skin Inc.