Wow – this could make a lot of difference in developing robots (not just humanoid ones) that respond/react to the environment in ways that mimic humans. The sociable robotics crowd who see intelligence emerging out of human-like interaction with the world will be happy, I imagine. See: Humanlike robot skin developed | Betterhumans > News
A flexible artificial skin has been developed that could give robots the ability to sense touch and temperature.
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“It will be possible in the near future to make an electronic skin that has functions that human skin lacks,” they write.
I guess you could make clothing out of it too. Imaging gardening gloves that told you the temperature of the soil while you worked it – or something linked back into a human-worn haptic interface.