Synthetic Skin Could Bring the Sensation of Touch

About

Synthetic Skin Could Bring the Sensation of Touch refers to a series of memes which imagine various virtual reality interactions which could be enabled through introduction of realistic haptic feedback. The memes reference an October 1st, 2019, article by TechRadar and gained popularity online in late January 2020.

Origin

On October 1st, 2019, TechRadar^[1] posted an article titled "Synthetic skin could bring the sensation of touch to virtual worlds" containing a report on a wearable synthetic skin which can provide realistic haptic feedback, developed by a team of Swiss researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's Robotics Lab.^[2]

On January 20th, 2020, an anonymous 4chan^[3] user posted a screenshot of the article to /v/ board, with the thread accumulating 77 replies. Within one hour, Twitter^[4] user @hvnsense posted a four-panel meme utilizing two images of a Wojak wearing a VR headset (shown below). The tweet received over 65,500 retweets and 227,200 likes in three days. A same-day repost to the /r/gaming subreddit^[5] accumulated over 4,400 upvotes prior to being removed by the moderators.

Spread

Starting on January 20th, 2020, the format received a notable presence on Twitter. On that day, Twitter^[6] user @DPPt_Shitpost posted a version of the meme which received over 5,300 retweets and 21,200 likes (shown below, left). A January 21st meme posted by Twitter^[7] user @Trollacoaster accumulated over 490 retweets and 2,900 likes (shown below, right).

In addition to Twitter, the format also received limited spread on Facebook and iFunny. For example, a meme posted by Facebook^[8] user Andreas H-Gabriel to Blade Runner RepliPosting group on January 20th, 2020, received over 670 reactions and 100 shares in three days.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Not available.

External References