New tech puts virtual sense of touch at our fingertips

Anderson (left) shaking hands with his prosthetic arm while wearing Northwestern University’s wireless patch, a new second-skin 'virtual reality' technology which duplicates the sense of touch. — Photos: Northwestern University/AFP

PARIS: Garrett Anderson has never known the pleasure of holding hands with both his children at the same time.

While deployed in Iraq with the US army in 2005, a bomb blast shot shrapnel through his right arm, severing it just below the elbow.