Circuit stickers

Abstract

We present a novel approach to the construction of electronic prototypes which can support a variety of interactive devices. Our technique, which we call circuit stickers, involves adhering physical interface elements such as LEDs, sounders, buttons and sensors onto a cheap and easy-tomake substrate which provides electrical connectivity. This assembly may include control electronics and a battery for standalone operation, or it can be interfaced to a microcontroller or PC. In this paper we illustrate different points in the design space and demonstrate the technical feasibility of our approach. We have found circuit stickers to be versatile and low-cost, supporting quick and easy construction of physically flexible interactive prototypes. Building extra copies of a device is straightforward. We believe this technology has potential for design exploration, research prototyping, education and for hobbyist projects.

Finding Common Ground

“…Other researchers have applied off-the-shelf electronic hardware for wearable systems (particularly Arduino [126,208]), but this comes at the expense of form factor. In the future, we envision electronics prototyping tools (e.g., CircuitStickers [91]) to support the integration of capacitive sensing electronics and electrodes into 2D and 3D printed structures. This would enable better miniaturization and robustness, and thus facilitate real-world deployments and longitudinal studies in realistic settings.…”

“…To build larger sensing systems, conductive paint can be used to apply electrodes on wall surfaces [18,174]. To bridge the resulting gap between electrodes and electronics, CircuitStickers use pre-fabricated adhesive electronic components [91].…”

“…Hardware for the shunt, transmit, and receive modes is similar and usually consists of an oscillator connected to the transmit electrode to generate an electric field, and an amplifier and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) connected to the receive electrode. In loading mode, [42,64,132,162] →Ink [59,57,58] →Paint [18] →Metalization [208] Gold -non-corrosive, skin-friendly →Gold leaf [98] →Gold coating [11] Aluminum -flexible, high availability →Foil [70,147,196,202] →Mylar [190] Silver -non-corrosive, flexible →Ink [76,87,105,108,203]+ →Thread/Yarn [185] →Plate [67] Carbon -enabling electrical conductivity →Ink [203] →Carbon-filled PDMS (cPDMS) [217] →Filament [20,123,177] ITO -transparent electrodes [64,119,199] Anisotropic materials -directing e-fields →Anisotropic 'Zebra' tape [91] →Anisotropic 'Zebra' rubber [24] Other materials →Water [41,173] & Plants [153] →Ionized gas [72] →Metal objects [43,68,173,207,226]+ →Electro-optic crystal [...…”

Engaging Amateurs in the Design, Fabrication, and Assembly of Electronic Devices

“…Some work has looked at new ways of fabricating circuits themselves. Hodges et al [9] use Microsoft Visio templates to support the layout of inkjet-printed circuits for use with stickers containing electronic components. Midas [28] is a software system for creating capacitive touch inputs.…”

Tick that Box: Interactive Paper Documents

“…Additionally, the vast enhancement introduced by chemical sintering [14] allowed the fast and easy use of conductive ink for drawing or printing circuits using pens or off-the-shelf inkjet printers [15], [16]. Hodges et al [17] added interactive elements through stickers. Moreover, printable electronics have been combined with other technology as described in [18] introducing new applications.…”