Louisiana researchers have made a nail polish that turns your fingernail into a phone stylus to solve ‘zombie finger’ problems | Tech Radar

Overview

Louisiana researchers have made a nail polish that turns your fingernail into a phone stylus to solve ‘zombie finger’ problems

“Our final, clear polish could be put over any manicure or even bare nails"

Details

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Two researchers have produced a clear nail polish that turns your nail into a stylus

It should help solve issues with 'zombie fingers' and for folks with long nails

If you love looking your best with long fingernails or have calloused fingertips from years of working as a musician or carpenter, you know how awkward touchscreens can be to use — and so 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 Live Science).

As Desai explained in a statement, “Our final, clear polish could be put over any manicure or even bare nails, which could help people with calluses on their fingertips too.” This means you can still enjoy your preferred nail art and use touchscreens, or if you don’t paint your nails normally, you can coat them in this polish without it being obvious.

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Modern touch screens rely on a thin, imperceptible grid of wires carrying a subtle electrical charge. Because skin can slightly conduct electricity — unlike the glass of your phone screen — the electrical charge at the point your finger touches the screen sticks around on your fingertip.

Various sensors attached to the wire grid can then detect your finger's disruption and use this information to understand precisely where your finger touched the screen, and how that touch should translate into an action on screen.

If your fingers are calloused — say from many years of being a musician or carpenter — then the conductive properties of your digits change and can mean you can’t engage with touch screens. This phenomenon is referred to as zombie fingers.

Meanwhile, long fingernails can make it hard to properly touch a screen with your fingertips, and your nails don’t share your skin’s conductive nature. 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 polish, which, while effective, can be hazardous if inhaled during the manufacturing process (via Sci Tech Daily). The other disadvantage 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 pair looked for clear conductive nail polish options using trial and error — experimenting with 13 commercially available clear coat polishes and over 50 additives.

The end result combined polish with modified taurine — a substance you can find in various dietary supplements and in Red Bull — and ethanolamine — a simple compound with a wide range of applications across cosmetics, agricultural, and industrial processes.

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On their own, these chemicals aren’t perfect, but combined, they are able to make your nail register as a touch on a smartphone.

Speaking with Live Science, Lawrence revealed that it will likely be some time before their polish hits shelves. For a start, 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 isn’t as clear as the 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 not to press your nail too hard into your screen — on a foldable phone, you could leave a serious indent or permanent scratch, and that won’t be ideal.

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Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for Tech Radar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.

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Key Takeaways

• Louisiana researchers have made a nail polish that turns your fingernail into a phone stylus to solve ‘zombie finger’ problems

• “Our final, clear polish could be put over any manicure or even bare nails"

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Two researchers have produced a clear nail polish that turns your nail into a stylus

• It should help solve issues with 'zombie fingers' and for folks with long nails