A Tokyo University venture has resulted in the formation of a company called Touchence. The new company have come up with a soft touch sensor which responds to interaction and pressure in 3D.
This sensor is far ahead of its current peers and is likely to make robots of the future more human-like.
World's First Soft, Flexible Touch Sensor For Robots #DigInfo
The current breed of touch sensors include the devices that are found in the iPad 2 and in Microsoft Surface. They react to your touch instantly and are concealed behind a glass panel, so they work only in 2D.
That makes these sensors are good for a flat screen use but not for robotics as robot cannot always rely on flat surfaces. They need to be able to react to partial touch and varying degrees of pressure. This is what the new touch sensor is able to provide.
The foal like material can be pinched, touched or leaned into and the material can accept it as natural. The Shokkaku Cube as it is called will get robots to develop much better reactions than they have at present. The foam fabric feel of the sensor also helps as humans are more likely to chill at the typical robotic metallic touch.