Science!

Whether it is a simple handshake or a full-body hug, the warmth of another person adds a human touch to social interactions. Now researchers have created a device that allows people with amputations to experience such natural temperature sensations using their prostheses.

The team say the innovation is a first and paves the way for integrating a host of sensations into artificial limbs.

Prof Solaiman Shokur, a senior author of the research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, said it was known that boosting sensory feedback from a prosthesis could help people feel an artificial limb was part of their body.

“To give a natural sensation, you cannot do it without temperature,” he said.

Shokur added that the approach could also enable people with artificial limbs to perceive whether an object was dangerously hot and help them distinguish between different materials.

“Beyond that it opens a window to the more social aspect of touch,” he said.……

https://www.theguardian.com/science...temperature-difference?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other