An exploratory study on electric field sensing

Electric fields are influenced by the human body and other conducting materials. Capacitive measurement techniques are used in touch-screens, in the automobile industry, and for presence and activity recognition in Ubiquitous Computing. However, a drawback of the capacitive technology is the energy consumption, which is an important aspect for mobile devices. In this paper we explore possible applications of electric field sensing, a purely passive capacitive measurement technique, which can be implemented with an extremely low power consumption. To cover a wide range of applications, we examine five possible use cases in more detail. The results show that the application is feasible both in interior spaces and outdoors. Moreover, due to the low energy consumption, mobile usage is also possible.