Tangible interaction using capacitive near-field communication

Tangible user interfaces recently gained popularity as they offer an intuitive and natural way of interaction. In this thesis, a novel approach to tangible user interfaces using capacitive sensing is presented. In the past, capacitive sensing has been applied to proximity sensing, touch and gesture recognition and more purposes. The system developed in this project enables communication over several centimeters using capacitive coupling. In contrast to other close-range transmission technologies (e.g. inductive NFC), the capacitive domain offers several interesting properties, which can be exploited to create a richer interaction experience with less effort in hardware and cost. A platform consisting of hardware, software and a broadcast protocol is introduced and investigated in detail. It features low-powered tags, which are attached to objects for tangible interaction. The tags are equipped with sensors to increase their functionality and allow users to perform gestures with the associated objects.