Objects Become "Smart" as They Sense Your Command

June 1 2012

Touché
     Carnegie Mellon University (May 2012)

A doorknob that knows to lock or unlock based on how it is grasped. A smartphone that silences itself if the user holds a finger to her lips. A chair that adjusts room lighting.

Science fiction? Not if Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon can help it. Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS) can enhance everyday objects by using just a single sensing electrode. When combined with gesture recognition techniques, Touché demonstrated recognition rates approaching 100%. Check out the video.

I can envision all sorts of applications, from corporate and civil security to aging-in-place.

Find the rest of the May 2012 articles we've found for you -- or more like this article -- by clicking on the links below.

Category: May 2012, Now You Know
Functional Topics: Monitoring Sensors, Aging