Shape sensing based on acceleration and magnetic sensor system

We propose a method for real-time shape sensing of thin and flexible materials such as fabric. Method is based on 3-axial acceleration and magnetic sensor nodes that are embedded into the material. It is designed for new emerging applications such as smart textile and flexible electronics. Method allows easy sensor integration in material and shape model reconstruction with at least 10 frames per second utilizing conventional low-power hardware. We developed a prototype consisting of fabric with 63 sensor nodes, Bluetooth data transceiver and shape reconstruction algorithm implemented both on PC and tablet. We compared shape models obtained with our method to commercial Kinect sensor and obtained average standard deviation of less than 1 cm for more than thousand different test shapes.