Hasta La Gadget!

Note: this is not a practical hack. It’s something to file under “mountain climbing,” as in the only reason to do it
is because you can.

All you need to do is completely fill a piece of paper with graphite pencil. This turns any sheet into a conductive surface. Then you ground your hand with an anti-static strap and allow an Arduino to convert the data into mouse coordinates.

Like I said, not the world’s most useful trackpad (in addition, it is also a bit messy). But it is a cool concept and a minor accomplishment of basement engineering. It’s also a concept that, if taken a few steps further, could create the basis for turning nearly any object into a computer interface.

Video after the jump.

via hack-a-day, afrotechmods