Researchers from MIT’s Media Lab have invented a hobbyist’s dream: SensorTape, a modular and programmable 3D-aware sensor network found entirely on a piece of tape. The invention has the potential to be used in a wide range of applications, like wearables and home sensing, and requires little effort on the hobbyist’s part.
SensorTape created by MIT’s Media Lab. (Image Credit: MIT Media Lab / YouTube)
SensorTape is comprised of interconnected and programmable sensor nodes that are laid on a flexible electronics substrate. It’s manufactured in a similar way to that of LED lighting strips, and can cost up to about $200 per meter. However, instead of using LEDs, the tape uses repeated patterns of circuits rolled onto tape.
In the video above, uploaded by Artem Dementyev, one of the authors on the paper, the team demonstrates how SensorTape can be applied to a user’s shirt to monitor posture, act as a 3D ruler, a proximity sensor, or be used in interactive table applications.
The MIT team developed the network to automatically determine the location of each sensor node whenever a piece of SensorTape is cut and rejoined. Just like ordinary Scotch Tape, SensorTape is flexible (composed of flexible electronics) and can be snipped and then put back together in different ways to create a linear or 2D surface. Since it’s a modular device, different functionalities can be joined together.
The team created algorithms for the tape’s reconstruction using IMUs which allow it to be used in many motion-related applications. For now, the MIT Media Lab is using existing conductive inkjet and flexible electronics technologies to create the rolls of tape.
In the course of its user study, the team found that SensorTape allowed users with different skill sets to create and program large sensor network arrays. In their paper, the group describes what it found to be the most common uses among subjects.
“In the user study, we found that most participants saw the SensorTape as a wearable device that is easy to customize. This was unexpected, since we originally envisioned it as something that is placed on objects or in the environment. Furthermore, the users suggested that SensorTape feels like material for arts and crafts, as it can be changed by cutting and joining. We believe that this project provides groundwork for future materials, which are very technologically sophisticated, and yet can be manipulated as a traditional tape or fabric.”
