Assignment 9: Sensors, Actuators, and Displays
The actual sensors for the temperature, EKG, and GSR were all very simple. For the temperature sensor, I used the National Semiconductor LM35 precision temperature, which is nice because it does not require any explicit calibration, accurate to +/- 1/4 degree (centigrade), and is low-power.The EKG sensor used was simply a standard EKG electrode available from standard cardiology supply stores such www.cardiologyshop.com. The EKG eletrode simply consists of a metal electrode with a conductive gel designed to make good electrical contact with the skin. Here's a picture of an eletrode (with temperature sensor integrated in):
The GSR sensor is literally just two pieces of conductive copper metal connected to two leads.
All the above sensors were bundled together and attached to a standard hirose connector, which is plugged into a matching connector on the sensor daughterboard (the temperature sensor was integrated into the black EKG lead by drilling out the plastic to make contact with the metal electrode and epoxying the entire thing). Here's a picture:
