Design of an Improved Strain Sensor for a Virtual Reality Glove Showcased at the Nanotechnology Engineering Capstone Symposium

A highlight this year was Team 20’s design of an Improved Strain Sensor for a Virtual Reality Glove. The members of Team 20 are Adam Powell, Brendan Barber, Logan Ingalls, and Vyshna Krishnakumar.  Congratulations to the members of Team 20 for winning third place in this year’s competition!

Strengths of the Team

The students enjoyed collaborating to assemble the different aspects of the project. They are an interdisciplinary team, with backgrounds in materials science, hardware development and wet chemistry. The team was successfully able to amalgamate the nanomaterial wet chemistry manufacturing process, enhance the electronic and material properties of the sensor and develop the hardware and software programs which accompanies the Virtual Reality Glove.

The Challenge

The team set out to design a glove with a built-in sensor to detect finger movement. Creating optimal lab procedures to create the sensor was the biggest hurdle of the project, it involved months of iterations which were further complicated by restrictions due to the pandemic. However, the team persevered through their challenges and were able to successfully complete their project. It is a useful and valuable project as joint movement modelling has applications in physiotherapy and training simulations, as well as gaming.

Future Plans

Brendan has accepted a position in construction QC relating to soil sampling. The other members of the team are pursuing careers in camera systems design and drug delivery of genetic medicine.

To read more please click on link below.

https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/design-improved-strain-sensor-virtual-reality-glove