Sensate Media — Multimodal Electronic Skins as Dense Sensor Networks

In this paper, we introduce the concept of building electronic sensate skins as extremely dense, multimodal, systolic sensor networks. In this fashion, the copious signals produced by the skin's receptors are reduced by the network itself, and only high-level features are routed out peer-to-peer, avoiding complex wiring requirements while promising to enable scalability across large areas. Our architectures and algorithms have been inspired by biological skin, where signals from receptors are enhanced or suppressed by processing in the receptor cells and nervous system before arriving at the brain. We illustrate this concept with work in progress on two test beds, the Pushpin Computer, an easily configurable, planar array of over 100 nodes set up as 'smart wallpaper', and the Tribble, a sphere coated with over 500 diverse tactile and noncontact sensor channels processed in 32 interconnected sensor 'cells'. We also introduce the Z-Tiles, a collaborative project that has resulted in a pressure-imaging floor realised through a collection of pixilated floor tiles configured as a mesh sensor network. We conclude with a technology roadmap for scaling to higher densities.