Come with me if you want to… live, I guess?
A team of Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo have just unveiled a robot human face covered with lab-grown living skin that heals itself and even wrinkles into a smile. They hope this will be the first step in creating more humanistic cyborgs in the future.
The scientists published their research in Cell Reports Physical Science, and believe this living, fully functional skin could lay the foundations of building robots that heal, feel, and are presented as humans.
“This living skin would be particularly useful for robots that interact closely with humans, such as health care, service, companion and humanoid robots, where human-like functions are needed,” Professor Shoji Takeuchi told the Times of London.
“The skin can repair itself if damaged, similar to how human skin heals wounds,” Takeuchi added. “And integrating sensory functions like touch and temperature detection is more feasible with living tissue. The skin’s dermal cells were cultured first, and the epidermal cells were then added on top to complete the structure.”
Apparently, the robot skin does not really resemble the texture of human skin, Takeuchi admits, but notes that this is the first step in an exciting new discovery.
“It may take up to 10 years of research and development before living skin can be used by robots that interact with people regularly,” Takeuchi said.
“However, we are making progress, and with continued efforts, this vision could become a reality within the next decade.”
Exciting? Yes. Terrifying? Also yes. But at least we have a century worth of sci-fi novels and movies to look to for advice on how to deal with these inevitable androids.
