News
New Artificial Skin For Robots Allows Them To Feel Things
A groundbreaking new development from a Caltech researcher means that robots will soon be able to “feel” their surroundings, with sensations relayed back to human operators.
Caltech assistant professor of medical engineering, Wei Gao, has developed a new platform for robots and their operators known as M-Bot. When it hits the mainstream, the technology will allow humans to control robots more precisely and help protect them in hostile environments.
The platform is based around an artificial skin that effectively gives robots a sense of touch. The newly developed tool also uses machine learning and forearm sensors to allow human users to control robots with their own movements while receiving delicate haptic feedback through their skin.
The synthetic skin is composed of a gelatinous hydrogel and makes robot fingertips function much like our own. Inside the gel, layers of tiny micrometer sensors — applied similarly to Inkjet printing — detect and report touch through very gentle electrical stimulation. For example, if a robotic hand picked up an egg too firmly, the artificial skin sensors would give feedback to the human operator on the sensation of the shell being crushed.
Also Read: Futuristic Electric Self-Driving Trucks Are Coming To The UAE
Wei Gao and his Caltech team hope the system will eventually find applications in everything from agriculture and environmental protection to security. The developers also note that robot operators will be able to “feel” their surroundings, including sensing how much fertilizer or pesticide is being applied to crops or whether suspicious bags contain traces of explosives.
Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, Professor of Computer Vision at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, has noted that the new development offers even more applications and possibilities: “The ability to physically feel the touch, including handshakes and shoulder patting, could contribute to creating a sense of connection and empathy, enhancing the quality of interactions, particularly for the elderly and people living at a distance or those who are in space [such as] astronauts connecting with their family and children”.
News
ESET Bets On Specialized Security AI At 0.5% The Training Cost
ESET says NeoCortex can estimate an attacker’s next move, with a kill switch and human oversight built in to keep it from going rogue.
A sign-in anomaly, a suspicious process launch and an unusual connection may look harmless alone. Together, they can describe an intrusion that is hard for security to teams to piece together.
To solve that problem, ESET announced ESET NeoCortex on November 4, 2026: a specialized foundational AI model for cybersecurity. It powers ESET LiveCortex, available within the ESET PROTECT Platform, which connects fragmented security signals and turns them into actionable incidents.
Filtering is the main selling point, with LiveCortex processing billions of raw telemetry events daily, and just 0.00111% of them contributing to incidents presented to customers. The aim is less alert fatigue and more analyst time spent on threats that matter.
NeoCortex is built on world-model architecture, learning how digital environments behave and how events relate. ESET says that lets it reconstruct missing incident context, recognize similar past cases and estimate an attacker’s likely next step – what the company calls “minus-one-day defense,” a chance to intervene before the next stage unfolds. ESET points to Black October, the week leading up to October 25, 2026, when critical security issues affecting PHP, Linux, GitLab and other key systems demanded rapid, prioritized responses, as the kind of moment where that context matters.
ESET’s internal research also suggests a specialized model like NeoCortex can be trained at up to 200 times lower cost than a large general reasoning model, while delivering more accurate, defense-focused results. The company credits optimized training, a focus on cybersecurity vocabulary, lower computing requirements and privately owned hardware.
Also Read: Dubai Says Its Deepfake Detector Needs Just 7 Seconds Of Video
“AI is accelerating both cyberattacks and cyberdefenses. With ESET NeoCortex, we are applying our AI investment to develop specialized foundational cybersecurity intelligence that remains under our control and strengthens, rather than replaces, human expertise,” said Juraj Malcho, Chief Technology Officer at ESET.
As part of the design, NeoCortex forms part of a layered architecture combining specialized models, deterministic controls, correlation logic, validation, auditability and expert human oversight. Safeguards include restricted sandboxes, read-only tools, continuous monitoring, defined usage and token limits, a kill switch and human oversight of critical response decisions. The model is also developed and self-hosted on ESET’s own infrastructure, which the company says reduces exposure to shifts among third-party AI providers, including commercial and geopolitical ones.
ESET Bets On Specialized Security AI At 0.5% The Training Cost
Whish Money Opens A Montreal Flagship To Enter The Canadian Market
Abu Dhabi Is Making Its Rulebook Readable To AI, With OpenAI
Binance Reportedly Loses $6.3 Billion In Record Crypto Heist
Robinhood Receives Approval To Launch In The Middle East
G42’s Inception42 Wants AI To Show Its Work Before Investors Commit
Abu Dhabi’s Robot Kitchen Is Serving Up Biryani, Not Burgers
Shokz OpenDots 2 Review: Clip-On Audio Gets A Bass-Heavy Makeover
WHOOP Goes Arabic, Betting On The Gulf’s Appetite For Health Data
Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM 5 Series Bets On Batteries You Can Swap
-
News3 weeks agoAbu Dhabi’s Robot Kitchen Is Serving Up Biryani, Not Burgers
-
Product Reviews3 weeks agoShokz OpenDots 2 Review: Clip-On Audio Gets A Bass-Heavy Makeover
-
News3 weeks agoSennheiser’s MOMENTUM 5 Series Bets On Batteries You Can Swap
-
News2 weeks agoCheckout.com Reports 20% Higher Payment Acceptance For PRYPCO