- Humans possess a seventh sense called remote touch to detect objects without contact
- Remote touch senses mechanical cues through granular materials like sand
- Humans detected objects buried up to 2.7 cm away with 70.7% precision
Sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing and the sixth sense - we are well aware of these senses that humans have, but scientists say there's one more. According to the latest study, humans have a hidden "seventh sense" that allows us to detect objects without physically touching them.
This so-called seventh sense is called "remote touch", similar to the sense used by shorebirds like sandpipers and plovers to find prey hidden beneath the sand.
"It changes our conception of the perceptual world (what is called the 'receptive field') in living beings, including humans," said Elisabetta Versace, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and lead of the Prepared Minds Lab at Queen Mary University of London, who designed the study, in a statement.
How Does Remote Touch Work?
Remote touch works by detecting subtle mechanical cues transmitted through granular materials like sand. When a person moves their fingers through the sand, they create pressure waves that bounce off hidden objects, allowing them to sense the object's presence.
The study, conducted by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and University College London, found that humans can detect objects buried up to 2.7 centimetres away, with a precision of 70.7%, sometimes even outperforming robots, which have a precision of 40% in detecting objects using remote touch.
The study suggests that the remote touch could be used in various fields, such as archaeology to locate artefacts without damage, detecting buried hazards or missing people, and also in space exploration.
"What makes this research especially exciting is how the human and robotic studies informed each other," noted Lorenzo Jamone, Associate Professor in Robotics and AI at University College London. "The human experiments guided the robot's learning approach, and the robot's performance provided new perspectives for interpreting the human data."
"It's a great example of how psychology, robotics, and artificial intelligence can come together, showing that multidisciplinary collaboration can spark both fundamental discoveries and technological innovation."
Zhengqi Chen, PhD student of Advanced Robotics Lab at Queen Mary said in statement: "The discovery opens possibilities for designing tools and assistive technologies that extend human tactile perception."
"These insights could inform the development of advanced robots capable of delicate operations, for example locating archaeological artifacts without damage, or exploring sandy or granular terrains such as Martian soil or ocean floors. More broadly, this research paves the way for touch-based systems that make hidden or hazardous exploration safer, smarter, and more effective."
