Robotics
Imagine being able to build and use a robotic device without the need for expensive, specialist kit or skills. That is the vision that researchers from the University of Bristol have turned into reality, creating a lightweight, ...
Oct 20, 2019
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Consumer & Gadgets
Sony said Tuesday its next-generation PlayStation 5 console, with new immersive features giving players the tactile experience of virtual worlds, would launch for the 2020 holiday season.
Oct 8, 2019
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142
Robotics
From warehouses to hospitals, soft robots are used in different places to assist humans in moving items, treating patients, and gathering information. As interests in these robots keep growing, scientists are developing ways ...
Jul 29, 2019
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57
Robotics
We have robots that can walk, see, talk and hear, and manipulate objects in their robotic hands. There's even a robot that can smell.
Jul 15, 2019
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9
Robotics
In Canadian author Margaret Atwood's book The Blind Assassin, she says that "touch comes before sight, before speech. It's the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth."
Jun 17, 2019
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21
The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system. While touch is considered one of the five traditional senses, the impression of touch is formed from several modalities; In medicine, the colloquial term touch is usually replaced with somatic senses to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.
The system reacts to diverse stimuli using different receptors: thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors. Transmission of information from the receptors passes via sensory nerves through tracts in the spinal cord and into the brain. Processing primarily occurs in the primary somatosensory area in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.
At its simplest, the system works when a sensory neuron is triggered by a specific stimulus such as heat; this neuron passes to an area in the brain uniquely attributed to that area on the body—this allows the processed stimulus to be felt at the correct location. The mapping of the body surfaces in the brain is called a homunculus and is essential in the creation of a body image.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
