Hi All,
I remember talking to a guy a number of years ago who claimed to have worked on the first VR glove. Apparently, they originally designed it for an air guitar design.
He said they used cheap fiber optic cable to sense the angle of each knuckle of the glove. What they did was, take the fiber optic cable (which is plastic, 1000um i think) and heated it in boiling water to make a long, tight U shape. They would attach this U to the back of the glove down the fingers. One for each knuckle they wanted to sense. They would remove the coating above the knuckle they wanted to sense and scratch up the fiber core a bit with sand paper. Then cover the point with an opaque cover for stray light protection.
By placing an LED at one end and a light detector at the other end of the fiber they could measure the flex (angle) of the knuckle by the attenuation of the light at the scratched point that bends with the knuckle.
Seems to me that this technique could be expanded for use in a DIY flex sensor. It seems like a long lasting and repeatable method to me.
Just my 2 cents.
HTH
Keith
Christian Heigele wrote: