In-House Development of Paper Force Sensors for Musical Applications

This article presents alternative ways to produce efficient custom force or pressure sensors using cellulose paper filled with carbon-black pigments. We have produced several prototypes of force sensors to observe and compare their response with applied forces with those of commercial sensors, as well as those of other conductive materials. Advantages of custom sensors are presented through the description of various examples of music controllers using several kinds of paper touch sensors with a large variety of size and shape. Our goal is to provide digital musical instrument designers with new strategies to circumvent the limited offering of commercial sensors, and to propose ways to exploit these concepts through a dedicated Web site.