Smart Prosthetic Skin Mimics Pain Signals to Prevent Tissue Damage

For those who rely on prosthetic limbs, the socket that joins device to body has long been a silent site of harm — pressing, abrading, and damaging tissue without warning. Researchers at Zhejiang University of Technology have now built a sensor layer that mimics the body's own harm-detection logic, not to restore the feeling of pain, but to reproduce its protective purpose. Placed inside the prosthetic socket, the device monitors pressure's location, intensity, and duration across two pathways — one for ordinary touch, one for accumulating danger — and alerts users before damage begins. It is