A dynamic capacitive sensor configuration is disclosed which imposes minimal force and resistance to motion on the moving electrode. Moving electrodes avoid adverse effects of large bias voltages such as pull-in instability, despite arbitrary levels of compliance. This configuration facilitates incorporation of highly compliant and thin electrode materials that present the least possible resistance to motion. This type of material is particularly useful for sensing sound. A large bias voltage can be applied without influencing its motion, e.g., 400 V. The electrical sensitivity to sound is high, e.g., approximately 0.5 volts/pascal, two orders of magnitude greater than typical acoustic sensors.

A configuration and a method for capacitive sensing of the rotatory motion of a rotary member are described. The configuration has four electrodes located in one plane, an analysis unit connected to the electrodes and an electrically conducting coupling surface, which is located at the rotary member opposite to the electrodes. The electrodes comprise a central excitation electrode, surrounded by the other electrodes. The coupling surface is opposite to the surface of the excitation electrode in each rotary position and covers a part of the surface formed by the remaining electrodes and passes over the surface formed by the remaining electrodes during a rotation of the rotary member. The remaining electrodes are formed by two sensor electrodes and a joint reference electrode, whereby at least the joint reference electrode is designed different than the sensor electrodes.

A rotation state detection device is applied to an operation device having a rotating body that rotates in response to an input of an operation force, and a supporting body that supports the rotating body rotatably. The rotation state detection device includes: a first electrode arranged at the rotating body; and a second electrode arranged at the supporting body and generating a capacitance with the first electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode are arranged to vary the capacitance periodically each time the rotating body rotates by a predetermined angle and make a shape of a capacitance waveform representing a change in the capacitance to be different. A rotational angle of the rotating body is calculated based on the number of periodic times the capacitance varies, and a rotational direction of the rotating body is determined based on the shape of the capacitance waveform.

A monitoring device for monitoring a screw joint of an object includes a base plate to be attached to the object and a top plate to be attached to one part of the screw joint, wherein the base plate and the top plate are positioned parallel to and on top of each other and wherein both plates each includes at least one electrode that capacitively interact with each other. The monitoring device is characterized in that the electrodes are shaped and positioned such that at least one electrode of one of the plates interacts with at least two different electrodes of the other one of the plates depending on the rotational position of the plates relative to each other. A monitoring arrangement having at least one monitoring device of this kind and a monitoring method are also provided.

A dynamic capacitive sensor configuration is disclosed which imposes minimal force and resistance to motion on the moving electrode. Moving electrodes avoid adverse effects of large bias voltages such as pull-in instability, despite arbitrary levels of compliance. This configuration facilitates incorporation of highly compliant and thin electrode materials that present the least possible resistance to motion. This type of material is particularly useful for sensing sound. A large bias voltage can be applied without influencing its motion, e.g., 400 V. The electrical sensitivity to sound is high, e.g., approximately 0.5 volts/pascal, two orders of magnitude greater than typical acoustic sensors.

A displacement detecting device includes: an insulating substrate; a graphene block in which graphene sheets each consisting of a single-layered graphene are stacked in layers; and an electrode of a conductor. The graphene block is fixed to a surface with a largest area among surfaces of the insulating substrate. The electrode is mounted on the above-mentioned surface of the insulating substrate. The above-mentioned surface of the insulating substrate is parallel to a basal plane of each of a plurality of the graphene sheets included in the graphene block. The graphene block includes a graphene flake that moves by sliding in a direction parallel to the basal plane in a case where a force having a component parallel to the basal plane is applied to the graphene block. The graphene flake is constituted of one or a plurality of the graphene sheets.

A capacitive displacement sensor system with interdigitated combs, includes capacitive detection in a direction perpendicular to the surfaces of the combs facing one another, the combs being subjected to a sinusoidal movement in the direction, comprising: a device for converting the capacitance delivered by the sensor into a voltage; an analog/digital converter configured to digitize the voltage delivered by the conversion device, and supply a digitized signal; and a control unit comprising: a harmonic estimator configured to estimate the amplitudes of the harmonics of order less than or equal to a maximum order based on the digitized signal and a reference angle corresponding to the instantaneous angle of the input angular frequency; and a signal reconstruction module for reconstructing the signal from the amplitudes and the reference angle that are supplied by the harmonic estimator and from the digitized signal delivered by the analog/digital converter.

A system may include electronic devices that communicate wirelessly. When positioned so that a pair of devices overlap or are adjacent to one another, the devices may operate in a linked mode. During linked operations, devices may communicate wirelessly while input gathering and content displaying operations are shared among the devices. One or both of a pair of devices may have sensors. A capacitive sensor or other sensor may be used to measure the relative position between two devices when the two devices overlap each other. Content displaying operations and other linked mode operations may be performed based on the measured relative position between the two devices and other information.

An electrode for a capacitive grating displacement sensor. The electrode includes a movable grating plate and a stationary grating plate. The movable grating plate is slidably mounted on the stationary grating plate. The movable grating plate includes a transmitting electrode. The transmitting electrode includes a plurality of mutually inverted trapezoidal structures. The plurality of trapezoidal structures of the transmitting electrode are disposed at equal intervals along a sliding direction of the movable grating plate. The structure is configured to reduce, or even substantially eliminate, the abrupt non-linear errors that arise when the edges of the insulating grooves between conventional transmitting electrodes align with the edges of the electrodes on the stationary grating. This improvement enables an enhancement in the overall measurement accuracy of a measurement device. Additionally, the proposed electrode improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the electrode coupling, resulting in more stable measurement data.

An input mechanism, such as a crown, detects amounts of applied force. In various examples, an assembly including an input mechanism has an enclosure; a stem coupled to the enclosure such that the stem is rotatable, translatable, and transversely moveable with respect to the enclosure; a sensor, coupled between the stem and the housing, to which force is transferred when the stem moves with respect to the housing; and a processing unit coupled to the sensor. The processing unit is operable to determine a measurement of the force, based on a signal from the sensor.