Ballpoint pen like pressure sensor with liquid metal electrodes

This study demonstrates a ballpoint-pen-like pressure sensor for endoscopic palpation, which can conduct continuous pressure measurement at different locations while a metal ball on the tip rotates. This device is a capacitive-typed pressure sensor with liquid metal electrodes on the cylindrical sides. The experiment was conducted on the fabricated device, in which loads were applied from three different directions while the capacitances of the equipped capacitors were measured. As a result, it was observed that the only capacitance ratios of the capacitor which was applied force increased and this device was verified to be able to detect the magnitude and direction of the applied force in all directions.