Scientists say they have developed a synthetic skin that acts a lot like the real deal — it’s stretchable and even has a sense of touch.

This is not the first time that scientists have purported to have found a way to sense humidity or temperature in a prosthetic, but a team of researchers based in South Korea said their version could result in the most advanced prosthetic skin yet, according to their new study.

The group’s study is published in research journal Nature Communications, and it details how the skin uses electronics to imitate real skin. It has humidity and temperature sensors to regular body heat, for starters, and it uses something called ultra-thin nanowire to transmit touch sensations from the prosthetic to the body. So say a person has a prosthetic arm: She would potentially be able to feel burns, the rain or a cold wind.

There’s another challenge: The skin has to be connected to the amputees’ nervous system. The researchers tried testing it out on a rat, but it wasn’t conclusive how much the test subject felt what was going on, according to the International Business Times. So some work still needs to be done, and the scientists plan to test on larger animals.

This technology comes on the heels of last year’s project from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which posited that discovery of a similar “medical breakthrough” in prosthetic touch technology. There’s also been advancements in mind-control technology, so prostheses seem to be becoming more and more intuitive.

It remains to be seen if this will be groundbreaking for prostheses in a widespread way, and it’s unclear when — if at all — this will be available to the general public.

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