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    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson
    E-Textile Tailor Shop by KOBAKANT
    The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

    Since 2020, Hannah is guest professor of the Spiel&&Objekt Master's program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin

    From 2013-2015 Mika was a guest professor at the eLab at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee

    From July - December 2013 Hannah was a researcher at the UdK's Design Research Lab

    From 2010-2012 Mika was a guest researcher in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at The Swedish School of Textiles

    From 2009 - 2011 Hannah was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech research group led by Leah Buechley


    In 2009 Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab


    Between 2003 - 2009 Hannah and Mika were both students at Interface Cultures
    We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition
    Sensors

    Matrix: Neoprene

    Four separate pressure sensors not only give feedback about where I’m pressing, but also how hard.

    >> Pressure Sensor Matrix Instructable

    The sensitivity is ideal for finger pressure. Though it is not linear, it is stable. Very sensitive to light touch and then it takes a lot of pressure to reach the minimum resistance. The inside looks just like the fabric pressure sensors, except each stitch is connected to a separate conductive fabric tab. The downside is that separate tabs and connections to these tabs take up a lot of space, especially if you want to achieve a tight matrix of sensors. A grid of lines and columns and some code to analyze these (separately power and measure) would allow for much tighter spacing. This version is nice because it is so simple.

    The Instructable covers two slightly different versions of the pressure sensor matrix. The only difference being the spacing of the individual pressure sensors in the matrix. In one of them they are placed practically next to each other (white) and in the other there is a 1cm space in between each sensor (purple), but because of the thickness of the neoprene it is not possible to press in between the sensors without pressuring a sensor.


    Videos

    11 Comments so far

    1. guest on June 30th, 2009

      how bad is the crosstalk between sensors?

    2. admin on June 30th, 2009

      Reply: Maybe you can kind of see from the videos (I’ve added the playlist to this post). I find differentiation between inputs to be quite clear, it depends a lot on how precise you are with your stitches. The videos show a range of different techniques, but the neoprene version with conductive thread stitches and Velostat (or now Eeonyx) in between definitely have the nicest range and separation between sensors.

    3. Dias Adilov on March 6th, 2011

      Hello there) ) )
      I just wanted to ask where to get this material?
      Do you sell it?
      Or maybe you could sell us ready sensor-panel as in video above?
      We could buy it from you, as we’re in real need of that staff.

      Contact me, ASAP.

    4. admin on March 6th, 2011
    5. Stephen Kerrigan on March 8th, 2011

      Hello Admin,

      Is there any information as to the scalability of this matrix for a much larger area ?

      I noted that you mentioned the sensitivity under finger pressure and I was wondering if sensitivity under foot pressure had been determined ?

      If an overlay of a pvc material at a weight of 3.9 lbs/sq. yd were placed atop this matrix would the sensitivity of the sensor design cause it to be triggered or would it be a matter of adding more resistive layers to prevent that ?

      Thanks Very much

    6. admin on March 8th, 2011

      the sensor should be able to scale and also be sensitive to greater pressures, such as human body weight. i’ve made a pair of slippers with these sensors embedded in the soles to measure changes in pressure that come from shifting body weight it it worked great (http://joyslippers.plusea.at/).
      you can modify the sensitivity mostly by adjusting the area of your conductive surfaces on either side of the velostat (piezoresistive materials). layering the velostat also works to some degree.

    7. decora on April 5th, 2011

      i am pretty sure this is the sort of thing that God really had in mind when he gave us the knowledge of electronics.

    8. jashin on January 7th, 2012

      can we continuously monitor the pressure by this sensor and interface it with vb 6??

    9. Christopher Mason on October 21st, 2012

      Hi.

      I’m trying to make a musical instrument that would lay flat on a table and be played with mallets. There would be white and black keys laid out on the surface like on a piano or marimba. I definitely want to allow for both pressure and multiple notes at the same time (two or even four mallets). I’m trying to decide whether to use this technique (really, a separate resistor/ADC channel for each note) or the x-y resistive touchpad technique. Any suggestions? Also, would you recommend Velostat or Eonyx for such an application? (Assuming Eonyx will sell me a small amount).

      Your stuff is all totally amazing! Thanks so much for sharing!

      -c

    10. me on November 15th, 2012

      Looks interesting. Any idea how durable it is?

    11. Plusea on November 19th, 2012

      […] Pressure Sensor blog post >> Pressure Sensor Matrix blog post >> Pressure Sensor Instructable >> Pressure Sensor Matrix Instructable >> Flickr photo set >> […]

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