- Two researchers have produced a clear nail polish that turns your nail into a stylus
- It should help solve problems with ‘zombie fingers’ and for people with long nails
- It’s not yet ready for store shelves right now
If you love to look your best with long nails or have hard fingertips from years of working as a musician or carpenter, you know how awkward touchscreens can be to use – which is why you might want to hear about this new nail polish that turns your nail into a stylus.
This coating was developed at Centenary College of Louisiana by student Manasi Desai and her research supervisor Joshua Lawrence (via LiveScience).
As Desai explained in a statement, “Our latest clear polish could be applied over any manicure or even bare nails, which could also help people with calluses on their fingertips.” This means you can still enjoy your favorite nail art and use touch screens, or if you don’t paint your nails normally, you can cover them with this polish without it being obvious.
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Modern touchscreens rely on a thin, imperceptible grid of wires that carry a subtle electrical charge. Because the skin is slightly conductive – unlike the glass on your phone screen – the electrical charge at the point where your finger touches the screen sticks around your fingertip.
Various sensors attached to the wiring harness can then detect your finger’s interruption and use that information to understand exactly where your finger touched the screen and how to translate that touch into an action on the screen.
If your fingers are calloused – for example from many years as a musician or carpenter – then the conductive properties of your digits change and may mean that you cannot use touch screens. This phenomenon is referred to as zombie fingers.
Meanwhile, long nails can make it difficult to touch a screen properly with your fingertips, and your nails don’t share the conductive nature of your skin. But with this new coating, they will.
Now, there have been previous attempts to turn a nail into a stylus, but those efforts would add metal particles or carbon to polish, which, while effective, can be dangerous if inhaled during the manufacturing process (via SciTechDaily). The other downside is that these polishes have a dark or metallic finish, which can limit their appeal from a style perspective.
So the Centenary College of Louisiana couple looked for clear conductive nail polish options by trial and error—experimenting with 13 commercially available clear polishes and over 50 additives.
The end result combined polish with modified taurine – a substance you can find in various food supplements and in Red Bull – and ethanolamine – a simple compound with a wide range of applications across cosmetics, agriculture and industrial processes.
On their own, these chemicals aren’t perfect, but combined they are capable of making your nails register as a touch on a smartphone.
Speaking to LiveScience, Lawrence revealed that it will likely be some time before their polish hits the shelves. At first, the effect lasts only a few hours, as the ethanolamine evaporates quickly. The varnish is also not 100% effective (meaning some touches still don’t register), and the least toxic formulation so far isn’t as clear as researchers would like.
They’re still working on the final formula, with Lawrence saying, “Right now we have a good proof of concept material, but need to do a lot more work!”
When they do, just make sure you don’t press your fingernail too hard into your screen – on a foldable phone, you could leave a serious dent or permanent scratch, and that won’t be ideal.
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