NASA scientists developing sensitive "skin" for robots

Tired of robots bumping into you on the subway or when you're walking down the street? (We know we are.) NASA scientists think they have a solution, in the form of artificial skin that will allow the bots to sense their surroundings much like humans do. The skin would be embedded with over a thousand infrared sensors that would allow the robot to sense when it's getting too close to you and trigger an instruction for it to move. NASA plans to eventually use robots with these capabilities in space stations, where robots and humans may work in close proximity. Up next for space station use, presumably, is a robot that can read the lips of humans hiding in an escape pod and react to what they're saying.

[Thanks, Ben N-W]