Product: Robot: Companion
diamond silicone robot girlfriend faces   (+2)  [vote for, against]
mixing industrial diamond powder with silicone creates amaterial that has the same temperature conductance as human skin, improving robot girlfriends

Companion robots are an area of active research. Supporting that would be to give them realistic human feel. I think that artificial skin covering that conducts heat just like human skin would be beneficial.

Diamonds are among the most thermally conductive materials known. Industrial diamond powder is fairly affordable. Mixing tghis with current silicone skins could create a temperature conductive robot skin.

Going further, with some complexity, is making the skin ever so slightly moist with a hygroscopic polymer. this would give the robot skin slight moistness. Like human skin though, the moisture would attract dirt, thus the robots would have to clean themselves.
-- beanangel, Jun 19 2017

Fun movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_2000
Then again, programming may crack spontaneity. [wjt, Jul 04 2017]

Hmm.

I'm assuming that thermal conductance works pretty much like electrical conductance. If so, then it won't make much difference whether you embed diamond powder or copper particles into the silicone - the resistance will be more or less proportional to the percentage of silicone in the mix, either way.

On the plus side, though, at least your electric girlfriend could double as a metal-polishing tool.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 19 2017


Tsk.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 19 2017



random, halfbakery