Tactile sensors and other distributed sensors with minimal wiring complexity

This paper describes a tactile sensor design, allowing data acquisition from a sensor array using a single wire. The sensor is implemented as a filter. Sensor excitation changes filter characteristics, and the pressure profile can be recovered from the filter's impulse response. The method is also applicable to sensor arrays for other scalar fields than pressure, such as heat, proximity, or radiation. Several methods of data extraction from the impulse response are discussed, and experimental implementation results are presented.