CMU Researchers Create Touchpads with a Can of Spray Paint
From: ECN - 05/08/2017

Touch sensing is most common on small, flat surfaces such as smartphone or
tablet screens. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, however, can turn
surfaces of a wide variety of shapes and sizes into touchpads using tools as
simple as a can of spray paint.

Walls, furniture, steering wheels, toys, and even Jell-O can be turned into
touch sensors with the technology, dubbed Electrick.

The "trick" is to apply electrically conductive coatings or materials to
objects or surfaces, or to craft objects using conductive materials. By
attaching a series of electrodes to the conductive materials, researchers
showed they could use a well-known technique called electric field tomography
to sense the position of a finger touch.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2017/05/cmu-researchers-create-touchpads-can-spray-paint
http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/may/touchpads-with-spray-paint.html

Links:
Future Interfaces Group
http://www.figlab.com

Electrick lets you spray touch controls onto any object or surface (with
  video 7:03)
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/8/15577390/electrick-spray-on-touch-controls-future-interfaces-group

Related:
SkinTrack Technology Turns Arm into Smartwatch Touchpad
https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2016/05/skintrack-technology-turns-arm-smartwatch-touchpad
https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2016/05/skintrack-tech-turns-arm-smartwatch-touchpad

System Recognizes Objects Touched by User, Enabling Context-Aware Smartwatch
  Apps
https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2015/11/system-recognizes-objects-touched-user-enabling-context-aware-smartwatch-apps

Repurposed Sensor Enables Smartwatch to Detect Finger Taps and Other
  Bio-Acoustic Signals
https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2016/10/repurposed-sensor-enables-smartwatch-detect-finger-taps-and-other-bio-acoustic-signals