Patent ID: 8736283

Claim:
An obscured feature detector comprising: a plurality of sensor plates, each having a capacitance that varies based on: (a) the proximity of the sensor plate 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 circuit being configured to measure the capacitances of the sensor plates; a controller coupled to the sensing circuit, the controller including a processor and memory storing an algorithm configured to analyze the capacitances measured by the sensing circuit; and one or more indicators coupled to the controller, each indicator capable of toggling between a first state and a second state, wherein, when the controller detects two or more separated obscured features, the controller is configured to toggle two or more indicators from the first state to the second state simultaneously to identify the locations of the two or more separated obscured features, with one or more indicators in the first state located between the two or more toggled indicators in the second state, wherein the number of indicators in the first state identifies the width of a gap between the separated obscured features.