Pressure Sensor Experiments

Our First Pressure Sensor is made out of two layers of conductive fabric with one layer Velostat in between.

It works well, as you can see the difference between press and release, but therefore it works more like a button, because there are only values for on/off, no range between, so it is not possible to detect with how much force you press it.

Also there is no haptic response when you press the sensor with your finger, you can't feel any difference while pressing it. But this can be an advantage for attaching it to a dress or suit, as it doesn't add much volume to it.

The principle is the same as in the first sensor, just added two layers of foam outside of the conductive fabric, to have achieve the feeling of actually pressing something.

The results are similar to the ones of the first sensor.

With the same idea of adding a haptic response to the sensor, this one is made with some "memory foam" instead of usual foam. This "memory foam" is usually used in pillows and cases and takes the shape of something pressed on it. After a while it goes back to normal shape.

I thought it could maybe add some more range to the output values when you press it, but exactly the opposite thing happened. It is possible to still sense the moment of pressure, but not really stable and only a very small range.

This sensor is made out of two layers of conductive fabric and ESD-foam in-between. This is the first sensor where it is possible to see how much pressure is applied. Therefore it works very well, the results are stable and really show the amount of pressure. So it does not only work as a button, but really as a pressure sensor.

This sensor is made out of materials of the "Sensor Film Kit" (www.sensorfilmkit.com), which are aluminium foil and "sensor film" which is probably the same as Velostat and an adhesive foil to hold it together. It works very well in terms of really sensing the amount of pressure you apply to it.

This sensor is not made out of fabrics, but as it is really thin and it can be

This sensor is made out of two layers of conductive fabric and conductive wool between these layers. The wool works well, as you can see that the resistance gets lower the more you press it.

This is almost the same as sensor 6, but instead of conductive fabric, conductive yarn is stitched in on both sides. Compared to the conductive fabric version, it is less stable, because the surface of the yarn which touches the wool is smaller, so sometimes there is no stable connection.

This sensor has an kitchen aluminium sponge inside between two layers of conductive fabric. It works, but not as stable as the for example the conductive wool.

These are material trials, but don't work because the used materials are not conductive or resistive.