There’s a nightmarish scene in Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 movie Pan’s Labyrinth in which we are confronted by a sinister humanoid creature called the Pale Man. With no eyes in his monstrous, hairless head, the Pale Man, who resembles an eyeless Voldemort, sees with the aid of eyeballs embedded in the palms of his hands. Using these ocular-augmented appendages, which he holds up in front of his eyeless face like glasses, the Pale Man is able to visualize and move through his surroundings.
Since then, the work has steadily advanced. To that end, the team recently published new research revealing the latest steps in the project: Creating 3D-printed tactile skin that may one day give prosthetic hands or autonomous robots a sense of touch far more in keeping with flesh-and-blood human hands.
All five senses While not every researcher would necessarily agree, perhaps the broadest fundamental aim of AI is to replicate human intelligence inside a computer. That means figuring out ways to recreate the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — in software form. Only then can potential tests of Artificial General Intelligence, such as the proposed “Coffee Test” , be achieved.
There’s a good reason for this: Although dexterous handling is something most humans take for granted, it’s something that’s extraordinarily difficult for machines. Human touch is extremely nuanced. The skin has a highly complex mechanical structure, with thousands of nerve endings in the fingertips alone, allowing extremely high-resolution sensitivity to fine detail and pressure.
As robots become more tightly integrated with life as we know it, the ability to interact safely with those around them will become more important. Ever since 1979, when a Michigan factory worker named Robert Williams became the first person in history killed by a robot, robots have frequently been separated from humans as a safety precaution. By giving them the ability to safely touch, we could begin breaking down this barrier.