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6 Skin, The Body’s Largest Organ

Figure 6.10: An integrated circuit manages and analyzes a large amount of pressure sensors. The sensors

are networked and transduced in a similar complexity as seen in skin (adapted from [31]).

Figure 6.11: “Smart materials” can be made from a

variety of different structures (adapted from [32]).

commonly temperature and pH, but they could also be a specific binding event. The

triggered action can be a conformation or phase change, a polymerization or polymer

degradation, or a color change due to a change in conjugation length. The “read-out”

after transduction could be the change in color, or could involve fluorescent molecules

that are sensitive to different pHs or phase states. These responsive materials are often