My initial idea was to create a curtain of sliced materials that would work as a switch when stroked.
Original Sketch:
To understand the best method for achieving this stroke effect, I researched pressure sensors, stroke sensors, and capacitive sensors:
First prototype using aluminum foil as capacitive sensor:
Upon learning that the stroke sensor (illustrated above) could be combined with capacitive sensors, I decided to follow the steps below:
- Connect Arduino to conductive fabric
- Sew the conductive fabric to the base fabric
- Use conductive thread to stitch the two fabrics together
- Leave the excess conductive thread on the surface to be stroked
- Use the code for capacitive sensor to measure the electric field being affected by the stroke and use the measurements to instruct the arduino to turn on/off the LED.
Final product: a stroke-sensor porcupine whose LED eye turns on/off when it is stroked.
