Hello!
I am new to Arduino and I am looking for project guidance related to how I can measure how much force I exert onto another person through a glove/sleeve with sensors on it. Specifically looking for advice regarding recommended materials to purchase. The idea is that the multiple sensors will recognize how much force is applied, Arduino will interpret the sum of these values, and an LED will blink when a specific value of force has been achieved. My priority is to receive advice about the materials first so that I can kick start the project and troubleshoot the code afterwards.
As far as materials, I have found these sensors. I would like some more guidance on other materials I may need to purchase. 30-61710 Interlink Electronics | Sensors, Transducers | DigiKey
30-73258 Interlink Electronics | Sensors, Transducers | DigiKey
30-49649 Interlink Electronics | Sensors, Transducers | DigiKey
I would appreciate any help I can get as far as a shopping list, programing codes, articles, etc.
Thank you so so much in advance!
Sophia
sophiaz:
Hello!
I am new to Arduino and I am looking for project guidance related to how I can measure how much force I exert onto another person through a glove/sleeve with sensors on it. Specifically looking for advice regarding recommended materials to purchase.
Sophia
More information for the purpose would be appreciated.
Why do you wish to apply force to a person. ?
Sounds like a torture device.
Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
Please read the first post in any forum entitled how to use this forum.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,148850.0.html
Can you tell us your electronics, programming, Arduino, hardware experience?
Have you read the documentation for the force sensors you have linked.
A wealth of information especially the integration document.
Tom..... 
The pressed object is unimportant to the sensor. Depending on the force and sensor sensitivity, you have to build a voltage divider or Wheatstone bridge, so that you can measure the actual resistance and convert it into the applied force.
Force sensitive resistors are not very linear or accurate, so I suggest to experiment with one before you decide what might work for your project.
Here is an inexpensive example to start with: Force Sensitive Resistor 0.5" - SEN-09375 - SparkFun Electronics. Follow the hookup guide and links on that page.
Force is measured as pressure divided by area. Pounds divided by square inches, etc. So, you also need to determine the size of the area being pressed.
Paul
Lots of questions that you will have to ask yourself.
What kind of force do you want to measure? It can range from slow, gentle touches to fast boxing punches and anywhere in between. Your sensor type will have to be in the correct range for that.
Is it a force applied to a large surface (hand pushing on someone's arm) or a much smaller area (such as pressing with a pointing finger). Will you know beforehand where exactly you're going to exert the force, or can be be anywhere within a certain area?
You'll also be looking for a sensor that doesn't get in the way of what you try to measure: it's not causing injury (boxing with something sharp), it shouldn't take away your own feeling (for the gentle touch), etc.
Who will the sensor be attached to? The toucher or the touchee? This may also make a difference.
Do you want to just know the maximum force, or you want it to sense a force profile over time or even over area?
Answer all those questions, and you'll quickly enough be able to settle down on an appropriate sensor. For the actual wiring of such a sensor, check the manual: this MAY be through a voltage divider and your analog port, but there are also pressure sensors that you simply connect to an i2c bus and simply get a digital value out of.
After that you can start to think of what you want the code to record, and how it's interfaced with the user. Just a display of the here-and-now value or logging data over time? How to display, how to log?
Paul_KD7HB:
Force is measured as pressure divided by area. Pounds divided by square inches, etc. So, you also need to determine the size of the area being pressed.
Paul
Force is pressure times area, not pressure divided by area.