TomoSense: Towards Low Cost Multi-Device Aware Independent Planar Surface Sensing

摘要

We present a plane surface non-invasive sensing system for creating new cross-device interaction in the wild based on electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) measurement setup. The core element of the system is the plane capacitance sensor consisting of 32 electrodes built into an experimental tabletop assembly coupled with the spatial-awareness concept. The interaction is enabled taking the advantage of the principle of physical objects interfering with the electrostatic field in proximity of the surface, which is shown here for a set of mobile devices. The presented system is independent, i.e. does not require any external sensing methods to be coupled with in order to detect devices in the proximity. Additionally, no technical requirement concerning the type of interaction device is posed hence, we enable to embed devices world into the natural environment. Moreover, the system design and operational foundations in terms of both simplicity and measurement protocol make the equipment easily scalable. All these properties open way to elaborate new interaction techniques that are even more allusive. This paper offers a glimpse of technical details of the system as well as discussion on the further exploration of the TomoSense potential.