Artificial Skin? We Made It — Here's Why | Anna Maria Coclite | TED

翻译人员: Michelle Xu 校对人员: suya f.

This is a piece of skin.

这是一块皮肤。

Of artificial skin.

或者说人造皮肤。

And now, OK, I’m just going to paste it on this hand,

现在，我把它贴在这只手上，

and I'll greet you all.

用来和大家打招呼。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I will show you how it works.

我将向大家演示它是如何工作的。

So please have a look at what happens on the table,

在即将播放的视频里， 请大家注意看桌面上发生了什么，

where there is one piece of this artificial skin,

上面有一块这样的人造皮肤，

and also what happens on the screen of the laptop

以及视频里笔记本电脑 的屏幕上显示了什么。

that you see in the video that is about to start.

So this is me.

画面里的是我。

I'm first breathing on the skin.

我先冲着这块皮肤呼吸。

And you see now that this line that first was flat

你可以看到最初平直的线条上

now shows a bump.

出现了一个起伏。

And now I'm touching it with my finger.

现在我用手指触摸皮肤。

And again, another bump.

又出现了一个起伏。

I am touching it one more time with the back of a feather.

我用羽毛的根部再触碰它一次。

And now tinier bumps are coming.

出现了更小的起伏。

And again. Now even smaller bumps are coming.

接下来又是更细微的起伏。

But what is this line?

这条线到底代表着什么？

This, what we are looking at, is electrical current,

我们观看的是电流，

which first is constant.

它一开始是稳定的。

And then when we touch the skin or breathe on it

当我们触摸皮肤、对着它呼吸

or touch it with a very light feather,

或者用非常轻的羽毛触碰它时，

it shows a signal.

电流会显示出信号。

So this bump that you see is a signal in the electrical current.

你刚才看到的起伏就是电流的信号。

And this is actually exactly how our skin also works.

其实我们的皮肤正是这样运作的。

So we have receptors in the skin

我们的皮肤中有能感知 周围发生事物的传感器。

which sense what is happening on the skin.

And then they produce an electrical signal which travels through the nerves

它们会产生电子信号，这些信号通过神经

and arrives at our brain where it is recognized.

传导至我们的大脑并被识别。

I am a chemist by education,

我是一名化学家，

and I worked in the field of material science,

在材料科学领域工作了将近20年，

which is a very interdisciplinary field,

这是一个高度跨学科的领域。

since almost 20 years now.

First, as a PhD student in Italy, in Bari,

我先是在意大利巴里大学攻读博士，

and then at MIT as a postdoc,

然后在麻省理工完成了博士后，

and now I am group leader in Graz.

现在我是格拉茨理工大学 的一位团队负责人。

And it is almost six years that we are working on artificial skins.

我们团队研究人造皮肤已经快六年了。

Almost 12 students, between master and doctoral students,

近12名包括硕士生 和博士生在内的学生

have worked on these devices,

在研究这些设备，

trying to study how the materials work,

大家试图弄清楚这些材料是如何工作的，

how they work together

它们又是如何协同工作的，

and how to build this device.

以及如何制造这些设备。

And after this, we have for the first time produced an artificial skin

我们首次研究出一种

that can respond at the same time to three stimuli.

能够同时对三种刺激 做出反应的人造皮肤。

Touch, so force,

触摸，也就是外力，

temperature and humidity.

温度和湿度。

And it can do this also at an unprecedented resolution.

它还能以前所未有的灵敏度做到这些。

So it's a very tiny device.

这是一个非常小的设备。

You will see how it is done.

你将会看到它是如何工作的。

And so this means that it can sense objects

这意味着它能感知

that are actually smaller than the objects that can be sensed with our skin.

比我们的皮肤可以感知 的物体更小的对象。

Our skin has a resolution of one millimeter square.

我们皮肤的分辨率为1平方毫米。

This skin has a resolution of 0.25 millimeter square.

而人造皮肤的分辨率 可达0.25平方毫米。

So I promised I would give you some technical details.

我保证下面会和大家分享一些技术细节。

I know you are really looking forward to them.

我知道你们早已迫不及待 要了解这些内容了。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The main component of this material, of this skin,

这种人造皮肤所用材料的主要成分

is what is called the stimuli-responsive material.

是所谓的刺激响应材料。

So what does it mean that it is stimuli-responsive?

那么，刺激响应是什么意思呢？

It means that at the beginning it is small.

这种材料一开始的体积很小。

And when we have either humidity or light or pH or temperature changes,

当湿度 、光线、pH值 或温度发生变化时，

this material changes in its shape, and it becomes bigger.

材料的形状会发生变化且体积会变大。

It can arrive to even doubling or tripling its thickness,

它的厚度可以达到初始厚度 的两倍甚至三倍。

its original thickness.

And this is an amazing property,

这是一个神奇的特性，

but it happens at a very, very microscopic scale

但它只发生在极其微观的尺度上，

because we produce these materials as thin films,

因为我们将这些材料制作成薄膜，

so sometimes even one million times smaller than a millimeter.

其厚度有时只有一毫米的百万分之一。

So the problem was, OK,

所以现在的问题是，

how do we translate this very big change in thickness

如何将这种厚度的巨大变化

into something measurable?

转换为可测量的东西？

And we thought, OK, let's combine it with a piezoelectric material.

我们想到把它和压电材料结合起来。

Now maybe this word sounds a bit complex.

这个词听起来也许有点复杂。

Sounds like something you have never seen in your life,

像是你一生中既未见过、 亦未听过的东西。

never heard before,

but it's not really true.

但事实并非如此。

You have been in contact with this material many times.

你其实已经多次接触过这种材料了。

I am in contact with it right now.

我现在正在和它接触。

It's in microphones, for example.

比如，它就在我的麦克风里。

So it's the material that when there is a movement,

当发生运动时，这种材料会产生电流。

produces electricity.

And so in microphones there are membranes

麦克风中的薄膜运动时就会产生电流。

that when they move, produce electricity.

It's also the material that is in these funny greeting cards

有趣的贺卡中也会用到这种材料，

that when you open, they make this music.

当你打开贺卡时，它们会播放音乐。

The music is also made with the piezo material.

音乐也是用压电材料制作的。

So there is an electrical circuit into the card and when you open it,

卡片里有一个电路，当你打开贺卡时，

it moves a membrane

里面的薄膜发生了运动，

and the membrane makes the music.

它随之开始播放音乐。

And it's also the material that is included in the arm wristbands,

测量心跳的手臂腕带中 使用的也是这个材料。

those that measure the heartbeat.

OK. So we combined these two materials

因此，我们将这两种材料 结合到如图所示的圆柱体中。

in these cylinders that you see in the picture.

So in the middle we have that material I showed you before,

圆柱体的中间是 我之前向大家展示的材料，

the stimuli-responsive material,

刺激响应材料，

the material that changes its thickness

这种材料厚度会发生变化且体积变大。

and gets bigger.

And on the outer shell we have the piezoelectric material,

而其外壳上使用的是压电材料，

the material that when the inside gets bigger,

当内部材料体积变大时， 外部的压电材料就会产生电流。

the outside produces the electricity.

And this is how it is done. Easy-peasy.

这就是它的工作原理。小菜一碟。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Then these type of cylinders are very tiny,

这类圆柱体非常小，

and we have several of them in this device

我们的设备里有几个这样的圆柱体，

so that we can sense with very high resolution

这样我们就可以以非常高的分辨率

the three different types of stimuli I was telling you before.

去感知前面提到的三种不同类型的刺激。

And a bit more of technical details.

还有更多的技术细节。

I know they are exciting, right?

我知道这很令人兴奋，对吧？

So how do we do these cylinders?

那我们是如何制作这些圆柱体呢？

We do them using a template,

我们使用了模板，

the one that you see in the picture on the top.

如上面图片所示。

This is a template with a lot of wells, so a lot of holes.

这是一个井字型的模板， 上面有许多孔洞。

And then we refill the holes.

接下来我们要填充这些孔洞。

First we fill them up with the piezoelectric material,

我们首先注入压电材料，

which is represented in yellow in the bottom figure,

也就是下图中的黄色部分，

and then we fill it up with the stimuli-responsive material

然后再注入刺激响应材料，

that is the light blue in the bottom figure.

即下图中的浅蓝色。

But to do this we cannot use liquids,

但是要做到这一点，我们不能使用液体，

because as you know,

因为众所周知，

liquids would fill the wells from the bottom up.

液体会自下而上填满孔洞。

And instead we want to cover also the lateral walls.

而我们却需要覆盖侧壁。

And so we do this using vapor deposition.

我们通过气相沉积来做到这一点。

So the whole process of production of these things

整个生产过程在真空室完成，

happens in vacuum chambers

like the one that you can see in the picture.

就像图片中看到的那样。

And you may be wondering,

你可能会想，

OK, why working on this topic? Why working on artificial skin?

好吧，为什么要研究这个课题？ 为什么要研究人造皮肤？

So from a material scientist point of view,

从一位材料科学家的角度来看，

the skin is really a complex ensemble of materials and functions.

皮肤实际上是材料和功能的复杂集合。

Skin is useful for protection, secretion,

皮肤可用于保护、分泌、

adsorption, heat regulation and sensing.

吸附、热调节和传感。

And so being able to just reproduce artificially all these properties --

能够人工复制所有这些特性，

or actually, for the moment, only the sensation --

即使目前仅仅只是传感这部分，

looked like a challenge.

看起来也似乎是一项挑战。

And so I was happy to embrace it.

所以我很高兴能够拥抱它。

OK, now I'm done with the technical details.

好了，现在我讲完了所有的技术细节。

Now I know you are all wondering,

我知道你们此刻都在想，

OK, you have done these artificial skins.

好吧，你成功研制出了这些人造皮肤。

But why?

但是为什么？

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I will show you some fields of application,

我将向你们展示一些应用领域，

ending with the one that I think could be the closest.

最后一个是我认为可能是 我们最接近的领域。

So we have also seen

我们见过很多烧伤受害者。

how there are many victims of burns.

These burns can be so huge

这些烧伤可能非常严重，

that they even take away the receptors in the skin.

以至皮肤中的传感器都被破坏了，

And so people would then lose the sensation

这些烧伤的部位从而会失去知觉。

where there was this burn.

Now imagine a future where actually victims of burns

想象一下，未来的烧伤受害者

could, thanks to our technologies, regain the sensation.

通过我们的技术可以重新获得知觉。

216 million users of smartwatches in 2022.

2022 年，全球智能手表 用户已经达到 2.16 亿。

Should I ask how many of you have a smartwatch now?

我应该问一下你们当中有多少人 拥有或佩戴智能手表吗？

Wearing a smartwatch?

Yeah, so imagine you are, for example, running on a hot day,

设想你在炎热的天气里跑步，

and your smartwatch could measure, for example,

而你的智能手表 能够测量你的皮肤含水量，

the level of hydration of your skin

and warn you maybe if you are reaching the limit of the hydration.

一旦接近极值还能向你发出警示。

Another interesting field of application would be robotics.

另一个有趣的应用领域是机器人技术。

Nowadays, humanoid robots are used in many fields,

如今，仿人机器人被用于许多领域，

for example in medicine

比如用于药物，

but also in household.

以及家用。

And these robots are exposed to several stimuli,

这些机器人需要面对多种刺激，

several interactions with the environment and with the humans,

需要与环境和人类进行多种互动，

and sometimes they have too many inputs at the same time.

有时候会有太多信息同时输入，

And this is the reason number one for robot failure.

而这正是机器人工作失误的首要原因。

So imagine a future where actually a robot could be a bit more sensitive,

想象一下未来的机器人 可以更灵敏、更聪明一些。

a bit smarter.

This would lead also to a higher safety of this technology.

这也将提升这项技术的安全性。

And finally, unfortunately,

最后，不幸的是，

a very highly cited paper projects

根据一篇被广泛引用的文章预测，

the number of people in need of a prosthesis on the rise,

全球需要假肢的人数

from 1.6 million in 2005

将从2005年的160万 增加至2015年的360万。

to 3.6 million 2015.

So a lot of people are born without limbs,

许多人出生时就没有四肢，

and some people lose them during their life

而另些人一生中会因为 血管疾病等原因失去四肢。

due to, for example, vascular diseases.

This is so common that you may even know somebody

这种情况如此常见，

who actually is in a need of prosthesis.

你甚至可能就认识需要假肢的人。

Now imagine we could coat the prosthesis with this artificial skin

现在试想一下，我们可以 把人造皮肤包裹在假肢上，

and give this type of people the sensation back.

让这群人恢复知觉。

With almost a decade of working in this field,

在这一领域工作了将近十年，

I'm hopeful that technologies like this could help in the future

我希望这样的技术在未来

not only regain, but also maybe augment capabilities.

不仅能够帮助人们恢复能力， 更能够用于提升人类的能力。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）