US Patent 7276917 Printed capacitive sensor

The invention relates to a flexible, resilient capacitive sensor suitable for large-scale manufacturing. The sensor includes a dielectric, an electrically conductive detector and trace layer on the first side of the dielectric layer including a detector and trace, an electrically conductive reference layer on a second side of the dielectric layer, and a capacitance meter electrically connected to the trace and to the conductive reference layer to detect changes in capacitance upon interaction with detector. The sensor is shielded to reduce the effects of outside interference.