Sensing Glove
The Need
Individuals with autism often feel disconnected from the people around them. Online social media can provide a means for these individuals to connect with friends and family. However the lack of physical interaction in online communication can be isolating. By capturing a sense of touch and recreating it social feedback can be created in a comfortable environment. This allows those with social interaction issues to feel tactile sensations that they enjoy.
The Project
Our goal is to create a wearable glove with the ability to absorb the full spectra of tactile information that the human hand senses, and then transfer that information wirelessly to a glove that replicates these sensations for another person. Our device will aim to quantize three of the key elements present in a sensation of touch: pressure (force applied over an area), vibration (frequency of motion perpendicular to the surface being felt), and temperature (difference in temp. between the sensor and the surface being read). Pressure will be read by a constructed Hall-effect sensor enclosed within a rubber dome, capable of realizing the forces in both the normal and shear directions. Vibration will be recorded using two accelerometers, to gather the frequency of vertical oscillations as the sensor is dragged across a surface. Finally, temperature will be read using the difference between two temperature sensors on the sensing apparatus.! ! Our final product will consist of these three sensor arrays constructed into a rudimentary glove-based device. Each of the three sensor arrays will be designed onto a PCB, which will then each be placed on a finger of the user. Using this configuration, the user can then contact the surface with the sensors, at which point the three quantities will be recorded. This data will then be processed and packaged properly to be sent to a receive device, where the sensation of the surface can be recreated.
Current Status
This project is in progress.