Trigger iphone capacitive sensors electronically

I'm working on the input direction of getting sensor signals into a smart phone like an iPhone or an Android phone.

This is interesting because smart phones have a notable amount of processing oomph, they're easy to program, and being small they are likely to fit well inside a robot.

Also, if you're interested in making use of the camera, that can be used for image recognition research.

Outputs might be triggered by lighting up small squares on the display, to be picked up by photosensors connected to the motors and such.

I don't know what resolution one could get with this in terms of pad size. I assume the OS itself has limitations on how many points it can detect at the same time.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• capacitive sensor
• robot
• iphone
• android
• interfacing

[FreakTheMight]

Does the phone have to be resting on the brass plate, or is that just for convenience?

[blackhossproductions]

@FreakTheMight it has to be resting on a metal plate of some sort; that's the capacitor.

[pin0ut]

@blackhossproductions Actually, I'm not so sure that's right. Try it with all the connections the same, but with the brass plate to the side of the phone - it should still work.