Study on User Interface for a Capacitive-Sensor Based Smart Device

In this paper, we designed HW / SW interfaces for processing the signals of capacitive sensors like Electric Potential Sensor (EPS) to detect the surrounding electric field disturbance as feature signals in motion recognition systems. We implemented a smart light control system with those interfaces. In the system, the on/off switch and brightness adjustment are controlled by hand gestures using the designed and fabricated interface circuits. PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signals of the controller with a driver IC are used to drive the LED and to control the brightness and on/off operation. Using the hand-gesture signals obtained through EPS sensors and the interface HW/SW, we can not only construct a gesture instructing system but also accomplish the faster recognition speed by developing dedicated interface hardware including control circuitry. Finally, using the proposed hand-gesture recognition and signal processing methods, the light control module was also designed and implemented. The experimental result shows that the smart light control system can control the LED module properly by accurate motion detection and gesture classification.