Live Demonstration: Soft Flexible Capacitive Sensing Arrays for Pressure, Shear, and Proximity

Abstract

Soft flexible capacitive sensors are demonstrated that can capture a combination of pressure, shear, and proximity information intended for medical, sports and robotics applications. They consist of three major components—silicone elastomer, conductive fabric, and flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB). Empowered by a custom readout circuit utilizing the Cypress PSoC 6 MCU, the systems consume 20 mW while scanning and transmitting measurement data via Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) 5.0. Pressure, shear, and proximity are visualized in a custom mobile application. Operation of our wearable and industrial sensors is shown.