project ideas
I thought those touch lamps did use a simple capacitive sensing approach, maybe someone could disassemble one and explain their operation? (I don't have one to take apart).
Gary, the project idea I mentioned in the PM might be a little ambitious. Here's another thought. It's been done before, but is fairly simple and covers a fair range of electronic areas. The thought is to make a distance measuring tool with an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver. It involves converting time to distance, and could be implemented either with discrete hardware or a simple micro. The parts cost isn't too great - I've seen the Xmitter/Rcvr pairs for around $6 in the US. The output could be something like a simple two digit 7-seg display. - CAL