Abstract
Wormsensing Dragonfly® sensors are strain sensors with a sensitivity which outperform standard strain gauges. Deformations down to 10ndef can be measured accurately. Combined with a flat form-factor, their high sensitivity makes them ideal candidates for developing tactile interfaces based on strain measurements, which solve some of the main issues of other technologies such as capacitive or resistive sensing.
In this paper, a keypad made of a metal plate equipped with four Dragonfly® sensors is presented. The position of a touch event is captured, as well as the force applied by the user on the metal plate. The keypad natively works with gloves or any other touching object, is fully functional in wet conditions, and requires only four acquisition channels.
Key Words
Tactile interface, piezoelectric sensor, force sensing, touchpad