- Two researchers have created a transparent nail polish that turns the nail into a pencil
- It should help solve problems with ‘zombie fingers’ and people with long nails.
- It’s not yet ready for stores at this time.
If you love looking your best with long nails or have calloused fingertips from years of working as a musician or carpenter, you know how awkward it can be to use touch screens, which is why you might want to check out 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 final clear polish can 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 normally paint your nails, you can cover them with this polish without it being obvious.
Article continues below.
Modern touch screens rely on a thin, imperceptible network of wires that carry a subtle electrical charge. Because skin can conduct electricity slightly (unlike the glass on your phone’s screen), the electrical charge at the point where your finger touches the screen stays on the tip of your finger.
Several sensors attached to the wire grid can detect the interruption of your finger and use this information to understand precisely where your finger touched the screen and how that touch should translate into an action on the screen.
If your fingers have calluses (for example, due to many years of being a musician or carpenter), then the conductive properties of your fingers change and may mean that you cannot interact with touch screens. This phenomenon is known as zombie fingers.
Meanwhile, long nails can make it difficult to properly touch a screen with your fingertips, and nails don’t share the conductive nature of skin. But with this new coating, they will.
Now, there have been attempts to transform a nail into a stylus in the past, but these efforts would add metal particles or carbon to the 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 styling perspective.
So the Centenary College of Louisiana couple searched for clear conductive nail polish options through trial and error, experimenting with 13 commercially available clear coat polishes and more than 50 additives.
The final result combined polish with modified taurine (a substance that can be found in various dietary supplements and Red Bull) and ethanolamine (a simple compound with a wide range of applications in cosmetic, agricultural and industrial processes).
On their own, these chemicals aren’t perfect, but combined they can make your nail register like a tap on a smartphone.
Speaking with LiveScience, Lawrence revealed that it will probably be some time before her polish hits stores. For starters, the effect only lasts a few hours, as the ethanolamine evaporates quickly. The polish is also not 100% effective (meaning some touches still don’t register) and the least toxic formulation so far is not as clear as researchers would like.
They’re still working on the final formula, and Lawrence said, “Right now, we have some good proof-of-concept material, but we need to do a lot more work!”
When they do, just make sure you don’t press your nail too hard on the screen; on a foldable phone, it could leave a serious mark or permanent scratch, and that won’t be ideal.
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