Input Interface Using Fingertip Pressure

Takako Nonaka Masato Shimano

Research Center for Information Communication Systems Graduate School of Science and Engineering
Ryukoku University Ryukoku University
Otsu, Japan Otsu, Japan
e-mail: nonaka@rcics.hrc.ryukoku. ac.jp

Satoshi Saino T omohiro Hase

Undergraduate School of Science and Engineering Dept. Media Informatics
Ryukoku University Ryukoku University
Otsu, Japan Otsu, Japan
e-mail: hase@rins.ryukoku. ac.jp

Abstract- This paper proposes a new operation method for
portable devices and controllers using fingertip pressure. The
proposed system provides multivalued, biaxial outputs
according to the fingertip pressure from two directions. Strain
sensors are used to detect microscopic strains caused by the
fingertip pressure on the body of the portable device. For
verification experiments, a prototype consisting of a detection
circuit with two strain gauges and a 32 bit MPU with an
aluminum body was manufactured, and various applications
were implemented. The experimental results indicate that the
prototype system can output accurate linear data proportional
to fingertip pressure from two directions. With the proposed
interface, the portable devices do not require a specific area,
thickness, or position for input buttons on their bodies.
Keywords- Fingertip pressure, strain gauges, biaxial input
and output.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, most mobile terminals use button switches as
input interfaces. This method which is called button input,
however, involves the following three problems.
(a) The panel of controller must have enough room (e.g.
25 mm2) for a fingertip to depress the button.
(b) The overall thickness of the controllers must be as
much as 2 mm deeper to hold the button and its depression
operation.
(c) The button input only denotes two values (on or oft),
indicating whether the button is being pressed or not.
Panel input using touch panel sensors also involves
problems (a) and (c). In addition, with frequent touching by
the fmgers the display will become dirty and damaged,
which also makes the screen display unclear.
We have been researching input methods and user
interfaces for audio-video (AV) remote controllers [1]. All
978-1-4244-5848-6110/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
of the panel designs concern similar problems for button
input.
In this paper, we propose a new user interface which
enables two-dimensional (2D) input by using pressure
sensors as a new input tool for portable devices.
II. PROPOSED USER INTERFACE
The proposed user interface detects microscopic strains
(normal strain) in the chassis caused by fingertip pressure.
The interface uses strain gauges, which are a kind of strain
sensors, that change their resistance values according to the
degree of shape change. The structure of the proposed
interface and the detection procedure are outlined in Figure
1.
This system consists of an input part, a detection circuit,
and an analog to digital (AID) converter. The strain gauges
are affixed to the inside surfaces of the chassis.
Strain gauges
__�II!t:iI=-� Strain detector circuit
AID converter
X axis
Yaxis
'-v---' '-y---J
Input part Detection AID conversion
circuit part
Figure 1. Structure of the proposed system
The input part receives direct fingertip pressure from the
users. It consists of four strain gauges in the chassis.
A strain gauge changes its shape when mechanical
energy is applied. The resistance is determined by the
amount of change of the shape. The degree of resistance to
change reflects the amount of strain. Thus, when a user
pushes the surface of the chassis with the tip of a fmger, the

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microscopic strain is detected as a voltage change. This is Figure 3 shows the experimental cantilever system [2].
used as an input value. The strain gauges, shown in Figure 3b, are located at
Next is the detection circuit. Its sensing element consists distance x from the edge of the beam on both sides. They are
of a bridge circuit, and an amplifier circuit. The bridge connected to the bridge circuit to detect the X axis input
circuit converts the resistance received from the input into a with a two gauge method. The output voltage of the detector
voltage value. The amplifier circuit amplifies the voltage circuit is measured in loading F at the point show in Figure
level to one suitable for an NO converter. 3a.
The NO converter converts analog data into digital data Figure 4 shows a view of the check operation of the
which can be used by a portable information terminal. Thus, strain detection circuit. The values of each parameter of the
the digital output signal is decided directly according to the experimental system were as shown in Table I.
fingertip pressure. F
In the following sections, to confirm the operation of the
proposed new user interface, three verification experiments
are described. In Section III, the strain detection circuit is
evaluated. In Section IV, the operation check of NO
converter board and the output value are evaluated. In
Section V, the proposed user interface is verified.
(a) Experimental cantilever system (b) Strain gauge
III. OPERATION CHECK OF STRAIN DETECTION SYSTEM
Figure 3. Experimental system
The first experiment used a simple laboratory model.
The relation between the amount of strain that the gauge
received and the output data from the strain detector circuit
were examined and compared with the theoretical values.
This section describes the experimental devices for the
strain detection system. It is appropriate to consider relations
of the stress and strain on the box-shaped object, but it is
difficult to calculate the theoretical values. Therefore, in this
section, the strain of a cantilever experimental system is
measured.
A. Experimental system Figure 4. Check operation of the strain detection circuit
Figure 2 shows the composition of the fabricated strain
detector circuit. The detection circuit consists of a
Wheatstone bridge with 2 strain gauges and a differential TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DEVICE
amplifier. Parameter Value
Component
t [mm] 0.80
Wheatstone bridge Differential amplifier W [mm] 100
Board X [mm] 50
E [N/mm'] 70 xlO'
F [N] 0, 0.5, 1, " '7.5, 8
Vee [V] 5.0
Detection circuit G 1000
K 2.16
Method 2 gauge method

B. Experimental results
Figure 2. Strain detector circuit The relation between the load F [N] and the strain e from
the strain gauge can be expressed as follows.
The theoretical output value from this circuit, VDD, is
calculated by Equation (1) using the gauge factor, K, the
6x
gain, G, and the voltage, Vcc, of the differential amplifier. e .F (2)
w t2 E
· ·

Where the Young's modulus of the plate is E [N/mm2],

the thickness is t [mm], and the distance from the center of
the gauge is x [mm]. The Young's modulus is particular for
Where, el and e2 indicate the strains from strain gauges 1 each material. Equation (2) indicates that the strain e is a
and 2 in Figure 2, respectively.

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linear function of the load F. Therefore, the output voltage the AID conversion board. The serial port of the AID
VDD is expressed as follows using Equations 1 and 2. conversion board and the laptop were connected with
RS232C cable. The one gauge method was used to measure
1 6x the relation between added stress and output voltage. The
VDD . Vee' G . K . .F (3) plus side of the X axis and Y axis in the detector circuit was
2 w·t2·E
= -

pushed. The user could press the points marked 1 and 2 in

Figure 6a by their fingertip.
The theoretical VDD can be calculated by changing the
values of F. Other parameters were as shown in Table I. The
theoretical value obtained by calculation, the measurement
value and the error are plotted in Figure 5.

Load F [N)
Figure 7. Operation of the NO conversion board
Figure 5. Relationship between finger pressure F and output voltage Vd
B. Experimental results
Figure 5 shows that the relation between the output
The output value regarding each load F after AID
voltage and the load of the detector circuit increases linearly.
The average of the error between the theoretical value and conversion is dependent on the conditions shown in Table II.
the measurement value is about 5.6 % and this value is
TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DEVICE
almost constant. Therefore, the measurement value is near
the theoretical value. Component Parameter Value
The results above mean this detector circuit cannot Vee fNl 3.1
measure the amount of strain exactly. However, the linearity G 1000
Detection K 2.16
of the 110 relation is more important than the accuracy of circuit Method 1 gauge method
measurements. Thus, the proposed system and strain gauges
F [N] 0, 0.5, 1, " '7.5, 8
are effective for user interfaces.
Baud rate [kbpsj 9600
Data [bit] 8
IV. MAKIN G PROPOSED SYSTEM FOR TRIAL PURPOSES Parity None
AND OPERATION VERIFICATION OF HARDWARE Serial setting Stop bit 1
The second experiment verified whether the strain Flow control None
caused on each side of the chassis had a relation proportional
to the amount of stress.
A. Experimental system
This experiment uses an AID conversion device that has
the resolution function of 12 bits. It transmits data by serial
communication. Figure 6 shows the experimental system
with the AID converter and the strain detector circuit. The loadF [NI
strain gauges are installed in four positions on the sides of
the chassis as shown in Figure 6a. The strain detector circuit Figure 8. Load on the X-axis and relation to the output value
and the AID conversion board are stored in the chassis.
® F

�5

-----
...-
4

LoadF[N)
[mm]

(a) Positions of the strain gauges (b) Inside the experimental device inside
Figure 9. Load on the Y axis and relation to the output value
Figure 6. Design of the experimental device
Figure 8 shows that the output value increases in
Figure 7 shows the experimental system. Note that the
proportion to the load. On the other hand, Figure 9 shows
PC in Figure 7 is used to display the serial output data from

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only a partially similar relationship between the output value
and load. This is due to the different lengths of each side.
The length of the Y axis is 90 nun, which is shorter than that
of the X axis (130 nun), so the amount of strain on the Y
axis is less than that on the Y axis. In addition, the noise in
the circuit and the AID conversion error affect the results.
However, even so, it can still be confirmed that the output
of the strain sensor can be used for a user interface. In
addition, the simulated results show that the output value of
the X axis is three times that of the Y axis. This difference
can be supplemented by applying three times the weight to
the value of Y axis. Therefore, the proposed user interface
can be achieved.
V. PROTOTYPIN G AND VERIFICATION OF PROPOSED
device. Figure lOb shows a part of the bitmap image in
Figure 12. The viewpoint on the application is controlled
using the data input by fingertips. This application moves
the viewpoint to any place.
Figure 12 shows the bitmap image for the experiment
and a comparison in size with the terminal display. When
the experimental system is powered on, the cursor mode
screen, shown in Figure lOa, appears as the initial display.
These two operation modes can be switched by tapping the
display.
virture scree n
720
pixel
display

STRAIN USER INTERFACE

D
320
pixel
A. Prototyoing the Proposed User Inteiface
t280 pixel 240 pixel
In the third experiment, a linear output was obtained
from the stress using the strain input of two axes. Figure 12. Comparison of sizes of displays of bitmapped image and
terminal
To verify the prototype, the following two applications
were developed; (a) an application to move a cursor (cursor
mode) and (b) an application to move images displayed on B. Experimental system
the screen (virtual screen mode). Figure 10 shows screen Figure 13 shows an external view of the experimental
shots of the applications. The cursor mode is an application
system implementing the proposed user interface. This
that visually expresses the strength of the input from the
system consists of the systems verified by experiments 1 and
strain gauge.
2, and a T-Engine for a portable information terminal.
T-Engine is a standardized development environment
with a real-time operating system (O S). Table III shows its
specifications, and the structure of the software and
hardware are shown in Figure 14.
taps the display

(a) cursor mode l

(b) virtua screen mode

Figure 10. Initial screen of each screen mode

(a) Front view (b) Side view

-------- -------- r--- Figure 13. External view of the experimental system
320
pl,.o'
-+-
, Ol.piay of' mod... I

� �I ========b=in= ia= l =str=a i=nAP= =p=IC=�-=o=n======�

n E
Is/wi I�=======T-= �= m=e = "=s= ta=da= d= ' = = �e= =�= i on�r===�
Figure 11. Display of cursor mode
I I�=======T=K- e =rn�le �====�II=F=M�1
The power pushes the device in the direction of each X ��I ====T=-M=o=n=tio=,==�II�====D='ve=i ;-;:'=====:1
axis as shown in Figure 11 in the bar chart. The cross cursor � I SH7727TE- ngnie I I Compact F a s l l RS232CI l h
moves in the direction of the resultant vector of the power of
the two axes. The received digital data is smoothed and used Figure 14. Software structure of prototype system
in the threshold processing. In particular, the value of the Y
axis is tripled to keep it at the same level as the X axis. The
parameters of X and Y are displayed at the bottom of the
screen.
The virtual screen mode uses a bitmap image. As a
virtual space, a part of the image is displayed on the terminal

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 was in the top right comer, the top left comer, the bottom
TABLE III. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE PROTOTYPE [3] right comer, and the bottom left comer of the bitmap image.
Item Specifications
When the viewpoint is moved, the screen can be moved
Input clock: 12 MHz at the relevant speed by delicate fmgertip power. The
Operation clock: viewpoint can move in two axial directions. The screen
CPU SH7727
Internal: 96 MHz moved at a speed proportional to the pushing force when the
External: 48 MHz surface of the chassis was pushed.
Flash memory 8 MB
SDRAM 32 MB
TFT color Color: 262,144
LCD Module Area: 240x320 (QVGA)
Operatinl!; voltal!;e 5.6 VDC
Max. consumption 600 mA

C. Experimental results
The application of the cursor mode and the virtual screen
mode operation were confirmed. Next the authors evaluated
whether intuitive operation by fingertips was possible. First,
a cursor mode verification experiment was carried out.
Figure 15 shows the appearance of the verification
experiment, when the top side, bottom side, left side, and
right side of the terminal unit were pushed.
The maximum power of the fmgertip was assumed to be
5 N derived from the force used in typing on a keyboard. Figure 16. Movement on virtual screen

VI. CONCLUSIONS

This paper has proposed a new user interface that

(a) Movement to upper direction
(c) Movement to the left side
Figure 15. Examples of operating GUI
(b) Movement to lower direction
(d) Movement to the right side
provides a multi-valued, linear output relative to the
fingertip pressure.
The basic principle of the interface is to use strain
sensors to detect microscopic strains caused by fingertip
pressure on the chassis of a portable information terminal
unit. An experimental system consisting of a detection
circuit with two strain gauges and a portable information
terminal was manufactured to verify its operation. The
results indicate that the prototype system provides linear and
highly accurate output proportional to fingertip pressure.
This proposed interface does not require a specific area,
thickness, or position for buttons on the chassis of the
portable information terminal. In addition, all components,
including the sensors and the detection circuit, are available
as standard market items; therefore, the device will be
inexpensive, and the circuit also has low power consumption.
Furthermore, the device does not need digital processing,
which would require special resources.

Consequently, the sensitivity of the strain sensor is very REFERENCES

good. The output value can be changed with only a light
touch. Within the range from 0 to 5 N from the value of F,
many values could be obtained by the slight power of a
fingertip. The cursor movement by the proposed two axis
strain user interface allows intuitive operation compared
with the current cursor operation. A very intuitive operation
was possible.
Next, verification experiments of the virtual screen mode
were carried out. Figure 16 shows sample results of the
application operation. In the results, the viewpoints move in
various directions on a huge virtual screen. Figures 16 (a) to
(d) display the part of the bitmap image when the viewpoint
[1] S. Yamada, Y. Uesugi, T. Nonaka, T. Hase. Selection Using Analytic
Hierarchy Process. In Proc. 2009 International Conference on
System, Man, and Cybernetics, pp.245-249, 2009.
[2] Tokyo Sokki Kenkyujyo Co., Ltd., "Strain gauges",
http://www.tml.jP/e/product/strain gauge/index.html. browsed at 31,
March. 2009.
[3] Renesas Solutions Corp, "SH7727 T-Engine General Information
Manual" Rev. 1.00,
http://documentation.renesas.comlenglproductsltool/rej1OJ1008 7727
_g.pdf, pp. 18-19, July 2005

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