Sensitive Skin is a wide range of sensors with data processing capabilities that can be used to cover the entire surface of a machine or even part of a human body. Depending on the electronics of the skin, it gives the wearer an ability to detect their surroundings through the proximity of the skin, contact, pressure, temperature, chemical / biological sensors or others. Sensitive skin devices will make it possible to use unsupervised machines operating in an unstructured and unpredictable environment among people, among many obstacles, outdoors in a crowded street, underwater or on distant planets. Sensitive skin will make the machines "cautious." This will allow us to build auxiliary machines for the disabled and elderly, bring detection to human prostheses and expand the scale of machine use in the service industry. With its ability to produce and process the massive flow of data, sensitive skin devices will make another breakthrough in the information revolution. This article examines the state of the art and research issues that need to be resolved in order to make sensitive skin a reality.
Sensitive skin represents a new paradigm in detection and control. These devices will open doors to a whole new class of enabling technologies, potentially having a very broad impact. Powerful non-viable applications today will be realised, ranging from medicine and biology to machine and defence industry. They will enable us to fulfil our dream for machines sensitive to their surroundings and operating in the unstructured environment. Some applications that sensitive skin devices will make possible are still difficult to predict. Flexible semiconductor films and flexible metal interconnections will enable us to develop new low-cost electronic products, new types of displays, printers, new ways of storing and sharing information (such as electronic and updatable paper, books and maps) . New device concepts suitable for large surface flexible semiconductor films will lead to new sensors that will find applications in space exploration and defence, specifically in mine detection and active camouflage.