Patent ID: 8669772

Claim:
An obscured feature detector comprising: an array of a plurality of sensor plates, the sensor plates being arranged in series along an array axis, each sensor plate having a capacitance that varies based on: (a) the proximity of the sensor plates to one or more surrounding objects, and (b) the dielectric constant(s) of the surrounding object(s); a sensing circuit coupled to the sensor plates, the sensing circuit being configured to measure the capacitance of each of the sensor plates; a controller coupled to the sensing circuit, the controller being configured to analyze the capacitances measured by the sensing circuit; the array of sensor plates and the sensing circuit being supported by a housing that includes a gripping surface; the array of sensor plates being arranged in series; the gripping surface being largely parallel to the axis of the array of sensor plates such that the axis of the array of sensor plates and the gripping surface are largely parallel; one or a plurality of indicators coupled to the controller, each indicator capable of toggling between a deactivated state and an activated state; and wherein the controller is configured to activate one or more of the indicators to identify a location of an obscured feature.