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Hardware for touch and force detection

A project log for TouchYou: a wearable touch sensor and stimulator

TouchYou, is a pair of wearable interfaces that enables affective touch interactions with people at long distance.

leonardo-gomesLeonardo Gomes 08/27/2018 at 03:500 Comments

The hardware for measuring the touch sensor and for communicating with the computer and the stimulation interface of the TouchYou needed to meet some requirements, for example being portable and having wireless communication. For reading the touch sensor, I used a breakout board with the MPR121 capacitive touch sensor controller. This module features twelve electrodes detection, configurable I2C address, a filtering system with debounce, and proximity detection and auto-calibration. The interface with the touch controller was made by using an Arduino Pro Mini board, with was connected with a HM10 Bluetooth module for the wireless communication. We also included a 3.7V Lipo Battery and a USB Lipo charger module, for hardware portability. A button for selecting the function mode, a LED and a vibration motor were also included for visual and tactile response for the hardware functioning. 

In addition of measuring the position where the touch occurred, we also measure the pressure (or the force) of the touch. For the pressure sensing function, we chosen to use two force-sensitive resistors (FSR) attached to the surface underneath the touch sensor.


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