Patent ID: 6889565

Claim:
A skin-texture sensor for sensing a skin texture having a plurality of ridges and a plurality of valleys, comprising: a) a base; b) a plurality of conductive row lines disposed on the base; c) a plurality of conductive column lines disposed on the base and insulated from the row lines; and d) an array of membrane switches disposed on the base such that a spacing between adjacent switches in the array is less than one half of a spacing between adjacent ridges, each membrane switch corresponding to a pair of one of the row lines and one of the column lines, said each membrane switch comprising: a lower electrode disposed on the base and electrically connected to said one of the row lines, and a flexible upper membrane structure disposed over and spaced apart from the lower electrode when in a quiescent state, the membrane structure comprising an upper electrode disposed facing the lower electrode and connected to said one of the column lines, wherein applying a ridge of the texture to said each membrane switch causes a flexure of the membrane resulting in a contact between the lower electrode and the upper electrode, the contact establishing an electrical communication between said one of the row lines and said one of the column lines, and wherein disposing a valley of the texture over said each membrane switch does not result in the contact between the lower electrode and the upper electrode.