Development of a finger motion measurement system using linear potentiometers

In this paper, a wearable sensing glove for measuring motion of fingers is proposed. The proposed system consists of linear potentiometers, flexible wires and linear springs, which make the whole system compact and light not to interfere with the natural finger motion. Inspired by the wrinkles of the finger joints are smoothed when the finger is flexed, a flexible wire is attached on the back of the finger. As the flexible wire is moved by the finger motion, the joint angles are calculated by measuring the length change of the flexible wire. A linear potentiometer with a linear spring for maintaining wire tension is applied to measure the joint angle. Because the motion of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) is dependent on the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint, only two linear potentiometers are applied for each finger. A compact sensing module including ten linear potentiometers and springs is attached on a glove. By simply wearing the sensing glove, the finger motions can be easily measured with an intuitive program interface.