It can be matched to people based on age, gender and ethnic group

Nov 30, 2013 08:28 GMT  ·  By

Complex organs might still be out of reach, but skin is safe, since it's already dead (or at least the top layer is) and isn't likely to harm you more than a tight-fitting piece of clothing would, or a sticker or tattoo. A team from the University of Liverpool has revealed such a synthetic skin.

Well, they haven't exactly finalized the process of making the skin, but they've come far enough along to show that through 3D printing, it is possible and viable.

In fact, they believe they can match the synthetic skin to gender, ethnicity and age.

It's most made for cosmetic purposes, but it's also good practice, so to speak, in trying to learn how to 3D print various other organs / body parts / tissues / etc.

The team from the University of Liverpool is working in tandem with one from the University of Manchester on this.

They believe they can use geometry to perfect the skin and give it the ability to deflect shadows, or rather match the person's actual skin well enough that no shadows are produced to reveal that the patch of skin is fake.

Image processing technology isn't able to perfectly match skin tone and texture though, not yet, at least not under all light sources.

Still, if nothing else, the new technology will enhance existing skin modeling techniques, until, eventually, it can duplicate it perfectly, for everyone.

So you won't have to go to a plastic surgeon anymore to get rid of a nasty scar or burn, and you'll get to save lots of cash too.

“The human visual system is extremely sensitive to small distortions in skin appearance, so making a convincing synthetic version will be essential whether this technology is used for emergency or cosmetic medicine,” said Dr. Sophie Wuerger from the Perception Group in the University’s Institute of Psychology, Health and Society.

“This science is at an early stage, but the advantages of 3D printing for medicine are enormous.”

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Dr. Sophie Wuerger
3D printed skin
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