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Furnetics Unlimited Ltd. today announced that the Hephaestus Group's Volar Surface Programme has closed final trials on a client-selectable pawpad specification for the four commercial Morphic templates offered under the Phenotype Renovations™ service line. The specification comprises nine distinct pad textures, independently selectable at the point of design, and will be available on every newly-commissioned Morphic design from the first of November 2023.

Prior to the release, the pawpads delivered under the four templates followed a single template-tied specification — a medium-papillary texture — agreed at the 2015 pipeline re-architecture and unchanged since. The new specification replaces that single option with a nine-texture palette, any of which may be selected without adjustment to the base price of the parent template.

The Volar Surface Programme was constituted in 2020 as one of a small number of long-horizon research groups within the Hephaestus Group; its brief has, from the outset, been the rebuilding of the mammalian palmar and plantar surface from the dermal papilla upward. The programme's final structured-follow-up cohort was closed in May 2023; the nine textures released today are the ones the follow-up recorded as stable across the standard three-year window and that the Independent Ethics Board found supported by the evidence.

“The pad is a small surface and, until this release, a surface the corporation had treated as settled. In practice, the client wakes to it every morning of their life and puts weight through it every time they cross a room. Whether the texture underfoot is fine or coarse is a matter of daily somatic experience, and it is overdue that the client be permitted to choose.”

— Dr. Ines Marchetti-Roux, Chief Scientific Officer

What the selector delivers

• Nine pad textures. Selected independently per limb, or matched across all four. All nine are available on Wolf, Otter, Vulpine, and Feline; template-tied biomechanical constraints do not narrow the palette.
• Persistence. The texture is encoded at the dermal-papilla level and retained through the natural corneum cycle without recalibration.
• Full compatibility with existing deluxe options. The Claws (stationary and retractable), Sensory Enhancement, and Metabolic Adaptation deluxe options are unaffected.

The nine textures

The textures are grouped, for the design-consultation brief, by surface relief. Names are the corporation's own and used in the brief; they carry no external standing.

• Glabrous. Smooth; no visible relief. The highest specular response of the nine.
• Fine Papillary. The dermal-papilla texture of small canids, downscaled.
• Standard Papillary. The 2015 pipeline default, retained under its new name for clients who wish to preserve it.
• Coarse Papillary. Larger, more pronounced papillae; higher surface area at the contact plane.
• Reticular. A fine cross-hatched network of raised dermal ridges.
• Nodular. Larger, rounded surface features distributed across the pad plane.
• Verrucose. Elevated, rougher features; a coarser surface than any of the papillary options.
• Dermatoglyphic. Parallel dermal ridges resembling the human volar print.
• Cushioned Reinforced. Thickened cornified layer with no surface relief; a durable option intended for high-mileage terrestrial use.

Reference library

The nine textures at reference scale, drawn from the design-consultation brief.

• Glabrous Smooth; no visible relief. Highest specular response.
• Fine Papillary Small-canid papilla, downscaled.
• Standard Papillary The 2015 pipeline default, retained under its new name.
• Coarse Papillary Larger, more pronounced papillae.
• Reticular A fine cross-hatched network of raised dermal ridges.
• Nodular Larger, rounded surface features across the pad plane.
• Verrucose Elevated, rougher features; coarser than any papillary option.
• Dermatoglyphic Parallel dermal ridges resembling the human volar print.
• Cushioned Reinforced The thickest available cornified layer; for high-mileage terrestrial use.

As with all elective surface renovations, tissues exposed to hard urban surfaces will, over a period of years, accumulate wear consistent with such exposure. The pavement-wear behaviour of the nine textures is discussed with clients as part of the standard design consultation, and clients whose day-to-day gait pattern includes substantial pavement traffic are asked to note the fact at intake so that the design counsellor may recommend a texture suited to it. Selection of the Glabrous texture is not recommended for clients with heavy urban gait mileage; other textures are discussed on their merits.

“A pawpad is the client's contact with the ground. That contact will, over the course of a life, meet several kinds of ground the design consultation cannot fully predict. The point of the consultation is to make sure that the specification the client chooses is one they will still want in ten years' time, on the surfaces they are in fact standing on. We are patient about that question and ask that the client be patient with us in return.”

— Dr. Kenji Arai, Chief Medical Officer

Existing clients

For clients who have already received a Morphic design under the pre-2023 pawpad specification, the corporation will make a pawpad-respecification follow-up procedure available beginning in February 2024, on the corporation's standard follow-up terms. Details will be sent by the Office of Client Services to affected clients directly over the autumn. The pre-2023 specification remains fully supported for clients who wish to retain it and is not being retired.

No change to safety register terms

The pawpad selector falls within the existing Phenotype Renovations safety register and does not open a new register class. Adverse-event surveillance for the new textures will be reported alongside the parent template in the corporation's annual safety disclosures.

Enquiries from institutional partners and regulators may be directed to the Office of the General Counsel, 15 Sükhbaatar Square, Ulaanbaatar.