Capacitive sensors uncovered: Measurement, detection and classification in open environments

When capacitive sensors are used in open environments, i.e. when the environment and objects in the vicinity of the sensor are unknown, uncertainties of measurements can become quite large. Increasing the number of electrodes can bring useful additional information to improve the overall performance. The paper discusses modeling approaches for such multi-electrode capacitive sensors in an open environment on the example of proximity sensing. It is demonstrated that object classification can help to reduce measurement uncertainty and improve the results for proximity detection.