In this Instructables I am going to explain about my new project called " A Pocket Sized Touch Keyboard" .It is a Arduino based small physical device used to simplify your different keyboard operations.You plugs it into your computer usb port and touch it on the capacitive touch sensor,the sensor can be made from any metallic objects (the sensor works based on arduino capacitive sensing library) .

In this instructable I am explaining how you can use this to simplify your login process,of course you can do all other keyboard operations too .

Step 1: Simplify Your Sign in Process

In this instructable I have added a small application of this project ,that is to simplify your log in process.

There is nothing more annoying than typing the password /pin over and over again.So yo can use this to reduce your effort on typing passwords:)

This device is small enough to fit it into your pocket.

Step 2: What You Will Need

The hardware part of this device is very easy,you only need

Arduino Micro

I used this because I want my device to be small .You can use any boards which uses ATmega32U4 such as Leonardo,Leonardo ETH etc.These board are having built-in usb which makes the micro recognizable as a mouse or Keyboard.

1 Mega Ohm Resistor
Jumper wires
PCB
Soldering Iron

Step 3: Circuit Diagram:

Step 4: The Hardware Part !

I have soldered 1 mega ohm resistor along with 2 jumper wires into a PCB as per above image.

Mount the Arduino micro to the PCB and and attach the jumper wire as per the circuit.

That's all,now just plug it into the computer and we are ready to upload the code.

Step 5: Pre-requirements:

You need to install capacitive sensing library if you have not installed yet.

You can download this library from here.

If you don't know how to install new library to Arduino IDE follow these instructions

Step 6: Arduino Code:

you can get Arduino code from here

capacitive touch login device.ino
Download

Step 7: Uploading Your Code

Launch Arduino IDE
Select board
Select port
Upload

Step 8: How It Works

The Micro is based on the ATmega32U4 microcontroller featuring a built-in USB which makes the Micro recognisable as a mouse or keyboard.

Instead of switches/buttons I decided to add some cool feature to my project, So I used arduino capacitive sensing library to use any metalic object as touch sensor.

The capacitiveSensor library turns two or more Arduino pins into a capacitive sensor, which can sense the electrical capacitance of the human body. All the sensor setup requires is a medium to high value resistor and a piece of wire and a small (to large) piece of aluminum foil on the end. To know more about how capacitive touch works follow the below link:

Capacitive sensing

Step 9: Testing

Once you have the Arduino micro Programmed and wired up ,open you favorite text editor to see the results.

Step 10: What Else You Can Do With It

The code which I have given in the description(to simplify your sign in) is an example that you can do with it.

You can do more keyboard functions with small modification in the code. Refer below links to add more keyboard functions

//to use ASCII characters use

Keyboard.write(ASCII character);

//for example to perform space bar operation use following code

Keyboard.write(32); //performs space bar operation

Step 11: Features of This Project

Program shortcuts on the go
Fully customisable
speeds up your work flow
Combining capacitive touch enables easy operations.
Small and light hardware parts

Step 12: Check Out the Video !

Check out the video for the project is in action.

Thank you so much for reading, if you need any more information feel free to ask in comments,and I'll do my best answer you.

Happy Making :)

Introduction: A Pocket Sized Touch Keyboard