The chances of two people sharing identical fingerprints are incredibly slim—about 1 in 640 billion. Even identical twins, who share the same DNA, have unique fingerprint patterns. Now, scientists have taken this uniqueness a step further with the development of a revolutionary electronic skin that features artificial fingerprints with a probability of duplication 10²³² times lower than human fingerprints.
A research team led by Professor Kyoseung Sim from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) has unveiled this cutting-edge electronic skin technology in a recent Nature Communicationspublication. The breakthrough could lay the groundwork for future AI-powered robots to possess uniquely identifiable fingertips—offering capabilities previously exclusive to biological organisms.
To achieve this, the team focused on materials that combine flexibility with functionality. Unlike rigid inorganic materials, flexible organic polymers are better suited for mimicking the human sense of touch. But integrating intricate, fingerprint-like structures into such materials—while still enabling them to sense texture, pressure, and temperature—posed a significant challenge.
Professor Sim’s team overcame this by developing a novel method for imprinting random, wrinkle-like patterns onto electronic skin made from styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS), a soft, flexible polymer. The process involves treating SEBS with a toluene solvent and then rapidly spinning it. As the solvent evaporates, the surface contracts and wrinkles randomly, forming one-of-a-kind topographical features.
The statistical likelihood of two patches forming the exact same wrinkling pattern on a 1mm² area is just 10⁻⁴³—an unfathomably small chance. This makes the artificial fingerprint over 10²³² times more unique than a human fingerprint. Scaled to the size of an actual finger, the odds of duplication become virtually nonexistent.
What’s more, the electronic skin is highly durable—resisting physical stress, heat, and moisture while maintaining its intricate patterns. This ensures that the artificial fingerprint can endure various environmental conditions, making it suitable for real-world applications.
When integrated into robotic hands, the advanced electronic skin grants machines the ability to sense temperature, grip objects with precision, and even avoid harmful surfaces—demonstrating reflex-like responses similar to humans. In one experiment, a robot equipped with this technology was able to detect heat and automatically avoid hot objects.
“Through a simple, scalable fabrication process, we’ve created an artificial fingerprint system with a lower duplication probability than that of human fingerprints,” said Professor Sim. “This has tremendous implications for future technologies—ranging from secure identity verification and personalized electronics to soft robotics with traceable lifecycles and intuitive human-machine interaction.”
The research was co-led by first authors Juyeong Lee and Haechan Park of UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Zhengwei Li’s team at the University of Houston’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
By Impact Lab
