ChainMail: A configurable multimodal lining to enable sensate surfaces and interactive objects

Abstract

The ChainMail system is a scalable electronic sensate skin that is designed as a dense sensor network. ChainMail is built from small (1"x1") rigid circuit boards attached to their neighbors with flexible interconnects that allow the skin to be conformally arranged and manipulated. Each board contains an embedded processor together with a suite of thirteen sensors, providing dense, multimodal capture of proximate and contact phenomena. This system forms a sensate lining that can be applied to an object, device, or surface to enable interactivity. Under extended testing, we demonstrate a flexible skin to detect and respond to a variety of stimuli while running quickly and efficiently.