Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley are finalizing plans for electronic whiskers a press release on Science Daily reported Tuesday.
Scientists have reportedly made tactile sensors from composite films containing carbon nanotubes, and nanoparticles, the color of silver which match the attributes found on a cats and rats whiskers the press release reported.
"Our e-whiskers represent a new type of highly responsive tactile sensor networks for real time monitoring of environmental effects," Ali Javey, a research lead said in a release Gigaom reported. "In tests, these whiskers were 10 times more sensitive to pressure than all previously reported capacitive or resistive pressure sensors," Javey told Giaom.
"Whiskers are hair-like tactile sensors used by certain mammals and insects to monitor wind and navigate around obstacles in tight spaces," Javey said in a statement the press release reported. a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Javey is also a faculty scientist at the University of California Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, and professor of electrical engineering and computer science the press release reported.
"The strain sensitivity and electrical resistivity of our composite film is readily tuned by changing the composition ratio of the carbon nanotubes and the silver nanoparticles," Javey said in the statement the press release reported. "The composite can then be painted or printed onto high-aspect-ratio elastic fibers to form e-whiskers that can be integrated with different user-interactive systems."
The e-whiskers are compatible with the force of a pascal or unit of pressure in the meter-kilogram-second system equivalent to one newton per square meter according Merriam-Webster's online dictionary definition, and the press release.
The force equals the amount a dollar bill takes up on a table the press release reported. E-whiskers will also enable robots to see and feel the press release reported.
