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Almost 12 students, between master and doctoral students, have worked on these devices, trying to study how the materials work, how they work together and how to build this device.
近12名包括硕士生和博士生在内的学生在研究这些设备，大家试图弄清楚这些材料是如何工作的，它们又是如何协同工作的，以及如何制造这些设备。
And after this, we have for the first time produced an artificial skin that can respond at the same time to three stimuli.
我们首次研究出一种能够同时对三种刺激做出反应的人造皮肤。
Touch, so force, temperature and humidity.
触摸，也就是外力，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 that are actually smaller than the objects that can be sensed with our skin.
这意味着它能感知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。
The main component of this material, of this skin, is what is called the stimuli-responsive material.
这种人造皮肤所用材料的主要成分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, this material changes in its shape, and it becomes bigger.
当湿度 、光线、pH值或温度发生变化时，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, its original thickness.
它的厚度可以达到初始厚度的两倍甚至三倍。
And this is an amazing property, but it happens at a very, very microscopic scale because we produce these materials as thin films, so sometimes even one million times smaller than a millimeter.
这是一个神奇的特性，但它只发生在极其微观的尺度上，因为我们将这些材料制作成薄膜，其厚度有时只有一毫米的百万分之一。
So the problem was, OK, how do we translate this very big change in thickness into something measurable?
所以现在的问题是，如何将这种厚度的巨大变化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, never heard before, but it's not really true.
像是你一生中既未见过、亦未听过的东西。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, produces electricity.
当发生运动时，这种材料会产生电流。
And so in microphones there are membranes that when they move, produce electricity.
麦克风中的薄膜运动时就会产生电流。
It's also the material that is in these funny greeting cards that when you open, they make this music.
有趣的贺卡中也会用到这种材料，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, it moves a membrane and the membrane makes the music.
卡片里有一个电路，当你打开贺卡时，里面的薄膜发生了运动，它随之开始播放音乐。
