Preliminary Studies on Capacitive Proximity Sensing for Touchless Interaction with a Human Finger

• Main Authors: Leonhard HASLINGER, Bernhard G. ZAGAR
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IFSA Publishing, S.L. 2016-12-01
• Series: Sensors & Transducers
• Subjects: Modeling; 3D position estimation; Capacitive proximity sensors; Touchless interaction; Electric field.
• Online Access: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/december_2016/Vol_207/P_2882.pdf

This contribution deals with preliminary studies for touchless interaction based on capacitive sensor technologies. An existing approach in combination with additional capacitance measurements is used for position estimation. For that, a measurement system is utilized which is able to measure capacitances in a range of a few fF to several pF. The main focus is the 3D position estimation of a human finger through measuring the spatial capacitance distributions caused by its movements. A grounded metallic test object is used as an abstract model of a finger. The capacitance modeling is based on a 2D simplification by considering properties of symmetry. This new model, combined with complex data processing algorithms, ensures precise finger gesture recognition in future research.