Artificial sense of touch gets smarter, lets robots really feel

The verdict's still out on whether or not androids dream of electric sheep. But their ability to feel? Well, that's about to approach levels of human sensitivity. We're of course talking about the sense of touch, not emotions. And thanks to work out of Georgia Tech, tactile sensitivity for robotics, more secure e-signatures and general human-machine interaction is about to get a great 'ol boost. Through the use of thousands of piezotronic transistors (i.e., grouped vertical zinc oxide nanowires)...