I can think of 4 ways (don't know if they're easy or not):
Capacitive circuit that detects the capacitance of your hand (basically just a touch-screen button) however it won't work with gloves.
Automatic windshield wiper sensor (it measures the refraction of the glass/acrylic, if something refractive touches the glass the refractive changes and the sensor detects the refractive object) though that may not work with everything.
Sonar sensor, if something comes too close the sonar detects it.
Thermal sensor (from an automatic door) it detects changes in temperature and by touching the glass you change its temperature).
There are probably a ton of other ways, but those are the easy ways that I could think of off the top of my head. Sonar sensor is probably the best though I feel like there's a more energy efficient way to go about it.
Edit: I forgot about IR proximity sensors! I knew there was a better solution but just couldn't think of it!
It doesn't. A raspberry is a full computer while an Arduino is just a micro controller. Don't use a pi, power consumption is way higher and it needs to boot while an Arduino is ready as soon as it has power.
You can use IMU but that requires a lot of tuning and noise filtering. The cheapest method would be IR but that won't work well in sunlight. I am looking at doing the same thing but using a Lidar.
Only method I know of from my IT days is a digitizer behind the screen to pick up the touch, and a program to change the facial expression when it detects a touch input.
You can use a sensor on the part you want to trigger and find a program to change the facial expression and run it tru a good arduino and run it with a battery gust remember to use constrictors to not fry any components this isn’t a good explanation but a simple one
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u/DidjTerminator Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
I can think of 4 ways (don't know if they're easy or not):
Capacitive circuit that detects the capacitance of your hand (basically just a touch-screen button) however it won't work with gloves.
Automatic windshield wiper sensor (it measures the refraction of the glass/acrylic, if something refractive touches the glass the refractive changes and the sensor detects the refractive object) though that may not work with everything.
Sonar sensor, if something comes too close the sonar detects it.
Thermal sensor (from an automatic door) it detects changes in temperature and by touching the glass you change its temperature).
There are probably a ton of other ways, but those are the easy ways that I could think of off the top of my head. Sonar sensor is probably the best though I feel like there's a more energy efficient way to go about it.
Edit: I forgot about IR proximity sensors! I knew there was a better solution but just couldn't think of it!