Fine Feature Sensing and Restoration by Tactile Examination of PVDF Sensor

An important signal processing problem in PVDF sensor is the restoration of surface information from electric sensing signals. The objectives of this research are to design a new texture sensing system and to develop a new signal processing algorithm for signals from the sensor to be tangibly displayed by tangible interface systems. The texture sensing system is designed to get surface information with high resolution and dynamic range. First, a PVDF sensor is made of piezoelectric polymer (polyvinylidene fluoride) strips molded in a silicon rubber and attached in a rigid cylinder body. The sensor is mounted to a scanning system for dynamic sensing. Secondly, a new signal processing algorithm is developed to restore surface information. The algorithm consists of the two-dimensional modeling of the sensor using an identification method and inverse filtering from sensing signals into estimated surface information. Finally the two-dimensional surface information can be experimentally reconstructed from sensing signals using the developed signal processing algorithm.