Capacitive Sensing for Instrumented Environments

Diploma Thesis (2006)

Abstract

Capacitive sensors measure the distance between two objects by the electrical capacitance they provide. These sensors can be used to track objects like the human hand in 3D space. However, there is a severe lack of research on capacitive sensing for human-computer interaction. This thesis deals with the use of capacitive sensing for explicit and implicit human-computer interaction (HCI). After a detailed introduction into principles and practice of capacitive sensing and electric field sensing, new capacitive sensing hardware called CapBoard is presented which has been developed over the course of the thesis. CapBoard offers eight-channel capacitive sensing with filtering and various additional features. CapBoard is intended to provide other researchers, developers, and artists with flexible and reliable hardware to aid further research in fundamentals of capacitive sensing and in useful applications. To this end this thesis provides detailed measurement data on resolution, range, and reliability of CapBoard, as well as useful guidelines for implementing capacitive sensing setups.

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