My last project brought up the subject of capacitive touch sensing. You may not have realized this, but capacitive touch sensing is currently on the forefront of electronics. Mechanical touch sensors are known to wear and ‘push-less’ sensors are just cooler. In case you did not know, the scroll wheel on an Ipod uses an array of capacitive sensors along with the infamous touch lamp.

For the engineer in you, Planet Analog has a lengthy overview. Basically, you design a circuit that is highly dependent on the value of a small capacitor. The capacitance in a finger then causes a significant and detectable change in the circuits output.

The doorknob touch alarm functions in just this manner. It does its job, but is not as precise as more complex circuits. For more schematics, check out Discover Circuits. A recent article on DesignLine proposed that this interface be adapted to mobile phone keypads.