SofTouch

Abstract

We propose a system that turns everyday soft objects, such as cush-ions, into touch interfaces in a non-intrusive manner. The belt type sensor modules developed in this study, which can be attached to the outside of soft objects, comprise several photo reflective sen-sors to measure the reflection intensity from an object by emitting infrared light (IR LED). When the light is irradiated to a material with the same reflection coefficient, a reflection intensity that is in-versely proportional to the square of the distance can be obtained. Our method uses the sensor modules to measure the change in dis-tance from the sensor to the surface of the soft object, and the touch position is estimated using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). To evaluate our method, we measured the accuracy when touching nine points on a cushion. Using existing everyday soft objects, it is pos-sible to create interfaces that not only blend into the living space naturally but also match the preferences of each user.

Members

Naomi Furui
Katsuhiro Suzuki
Yuta Sugiura
Maki Sugimoto