User:Kenah/Sensative trackpad

balance

PEOPLE

ALKENAH WANSING
Major // graphic design
PAGE ALKENAH

PHILIP GHERING
Major // CMD
PAGE PHILIP

SENSOR
BODY VOLTAGE METER

PROCESS

At first, we were assigned to do some digging and bring a sensor to the class. I did some research and found some interesting sensors, like the Bend sensor, pressure Sensor, thermal sensor, proximity sensor and the optical sensor. but the one that got my attention was the body voltage meter. what I think is so interesting about the body voltage meter is that you use your body as a sensor to sense static electricity.
[Body Voltage Meter]

In the class meeting where we presented the sensors, I teamed up with Philip. here we decided to do some more research on the body voltage meter plus capacitive sensor. but eventually, Philips research had more information that we could work with. I couldn't find any information oh how or why a body voltage meter did what it did. All I could find is a community that lived with the fear of having static electricity collected in their body because of the daily use of electronics. after exchanging the findings we decided to work with the capacitive sensor.
[People that use it]

A capacitive sensing is not the same but allows you to measure proximity and/or touch. This happens by moving your hand through a magnetic field generated by the sensor. Your body is then the other side of a capacitor, changing the capacitance which you can measure. This number can be converted to distance. This requires lots of calibration and filtering the measured values.