Electronic 'Chameleon Skin' Developed by Scientists

Coming up: One stretchable, chameleon-like electronic skin with "color-changing properties that can be controlled by tactile sensing," says a study published in Nature explaining an experiment by scientists at Stanford University.

The e-skin is composed of stretchable microsaturated polymer, modifying its voltage when pressure is applied, while the stretchable "electrochromic" polymer could be of red or blue colour. That depends on the voltage.

As the pressure changes, the chemical composition of the "electrochromic" material also fluctuates, and so does the colour.

"We show an all-solution processed chameleon-inspired stretchable electronic skin (e-skin), in which the e-skin color can easily be controlled through varying the applied pressure along with the applied pressure duration," said Ho-Hsiu Chou, lead author of the study. "As such, the e-skin's color change can also in turn be utilized to distinguish the pressure applied."

There are interesting uses for the skin---it could become part of "wearable devices, smart robots and artificial prosthetics".

"The e-skin can potentially be integrated into the things that we wear and carry, i.e., clothes, smart phones, smart watches and any other kind of wearable devices," he said. "By integrating with this color-changeable e-skin, you can imagine that all the colors can be integrated into one device, and the user can change it interactively for decoration or to express emotion," according to hngn.

However, while this technology is interesting, it is not the first of its kind. Innovators from the University of California at Berkeley also innovated in March, according to Nanowerk.

They used technology that took advantage of the light reflective properties of silicon, according to Geek.