NYU Researchers Create Cheap, Flexible Pressure-Based Interface

Al writes "A super-cheap, thin and flexible touch interface developed by researchers at New York University and could be used to add touch sensing to all sorts of gadgets and devices. It measures a change in electrical resistance when a person or object applies different pressure. The "Inexpensive Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD)" consists of two sheets of plastic containing parallel lines of electrodes. The sheets are arranged so that the electrodes cross, creating a grid and each intersection acts as a pressure sensor. The sheets are also covered with a layer of force-sensitive resistor (FSR) ink, a type of ink that has microscopic bumps on its surface. So, when something coated in the ink is pressed, the bumps move together and touch, conducting electricity."

Comments

Re:The power of suggestion

[Anonymusing]

Exactly. Think about clothing...

"Hey baby, check out my new touch-sensitive digital pants. Let me see if you're wearing one of those touch-sensitive shirts..." (SLAP!) "OK, I guess it's VERY touch sensitive..."

Re:Presssure?

[Red Flayer]

I heard it alssso makes the wearer invisssible.

You know, because it's preciousss.

Re:Presssure?

[Peeet]

I think the more important typo in the headline is that the words "multi-touch" are not used. That is the most impressive part of this prototype above and beyond the fact that it is cheap, flexible, and pressure based.

Robot skin

[Facegarden]

Looks like this could go a long way towards providing some very effective "Skin" for a robot, to sense contact all over.
-Taylor