Behind the buzz and beyond the hype: Our Nanowerk-exclusive
feature articles Posted: Jul 03, 2012 Move over touchscreen -
here comes a touchless interface that senses your fingertips
(Nanowerk Spotlight) Over the past few years, touchscreens have
become ubiquitous in the world of mobile electronic devices. A
next generation of touch sensing devices will be vastly more
advanced and lead to ultrasensitive artificial skins (see for
instance: "New artificial skin could make prosthetic limbs and
robots more sensitive"). Another, novel model for advanced man-
machine interactive systems could be based on moisture
detectors. Here, actual touch is no longer necessary for a
positioning interface to react; rather, the distribution of
water molecules that exists around all humid surfaces, such as a
human finger, would be sufficient to trigger a response. "The
sensitivity of moisture responsiveness usually relies on the
interval structures of the grain boundaries, as well as the
electropositivity of exposed metal atoms, w