1 PrintSense: A Versatile Sensing Technique to Support Multimodal Flexible Surface Interaction

technique supports the de-velopment of multi-modal sensing arrays, printed as a single layer onto a flexible substrate and connected to a custom hardware module (left). It supports capacitive touch and proximity sensing along with resistive pressure sensing (centre) & bend sens-ing of the substrate (right). We present a multimodal on-surface and near-surface sensing technique for planar, curved and flexible surfaces. Our technique leverages temporal multiplexing of signals coming from a universal inter-digitated electrode design, which is printed as a single conductive layer on a flexible substrate. It supports sensing of touch and proximity in-put, and moreover is capable of capturing several levels of pressure and flexing. We leverage recent developments in conductive inkjet printing as a way to prototype electrode patterns, and combine this with a new hardware module for supporting the full range of sensing methods. As the technique is low-cost and easy to implement, it is particu-larly well-suited for prototyping touch- and hover-based user interfaces, including curved and deformable ones. Author Keywords Interactive surface, touch input, multimodal input, flexi