Seventh sense: Humans can sense buried objects like shorebirds

A recent study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and University College London reveals that humans possess a “remote touch” ability, enabling them to detect objects buried beneath sand without direct contact. This challenges the traditional view that touch is limited to physical contact with surfaces. Participants in the study were able to locate hidden cubes under sand by sensing subtle mechanical vibrations and displacements transmitted through the granular material, a capability similar to that of shorebirds like sandpipers and plovers, which detect prey beneath sand via mechanical cues. The study also compared human performance with a robotic tactile sensor trained using a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithm. Humans achieved a higher precision (70.7%) in detecting buried objects than the robot (40%), despite the robot sensing objects from slightly greater distances but producing more false positives. Both human and robotic detection approached the theoretical physical limits of sensitivity. These findings expand the scientific understanding of human touch, showing it extends beyond direct contact, and suggest new directions for designing tactile