Input glove

I have a concept of a glove for a project I'm making, but I'm not too sure how to implement it so I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas.

You have a single sensor on the thumb and you input the values by contacting one of the other four fingers with it.
Each finger represents a different value therefore the sensor has to somehow distinguish between the fingers.

My idea was to put a colored led on each of the input fingers and have the sensor distinguish them based on color, however this would result in a very bulky contraption that would not be comfortable to wear.

Can anyone give me an idea of how this can be implemented?

Does it need to be the sensor that is distinguishing between fingers? What about simply using contacts to complete a circuit, or to feed back to a microcontroller?

Sorry, I forgot to mention it earlier. It doesn't have to be a sensor, but you have to be able to input all of the values at the same spot.

The way I see it, and I could be wrong, but the problem with contacts is that you'd need one for each finger therefore there would be four different spots at which you would have to input the values.
Or is there a way around this?

Do you mean you need to be able to input several fingers at once?

What will this control in the end?

In the end its going to be a keyboard replacement for a home brewed Wearcomp I'm making.

Sorry, English isn't my first language so it's a bit hard to explain. I'll illustrate what I need with a picture.
(Oh and there is no need to input two at once. Only one at a time necessary).

The red spot is where you need to press with the finger in order to input a value.

With a sensor there is only one red spot that is suited for all fingers.
However with contacts there are four different spots, one for each finger.

The way I need it is to have only one spot. Can this be done with contacts?

Your english looks great. Much better then some native speakers here lol

I guess my thought was to make the thumb contact either + or - (voltage or ground) and then have each finger contact the oppisite.

Such as the thumb is ground and each finger is voltage, touching that finger to the thumb will complete the circuit attatched to that finger. Just like a momentary switch.

You could use a microcontroller such as a PIC and have 4 pins as input (one for each finger) and use the thumb to set them hi or low.

I would choose to avoid using a contact simply because they can be unreliable. To avoid direct contact, consider using a capacitive coupling or magnetic coupling. For example, if you could feed four different square waves to small electrodes, one on each fingertip and make each square wave a different frequency (each one being fairly high like 300KHz or so), you could then have an electrode on the thumb that picks up the square wave through capacitive coupling, which is easily tuned to work when the finger is held close to the sensor on the thumb. You would then amplify the small signal that is picked up and feed it into a circuit that determines from the unique frequency which finger was held close to the thumb. Since you are using capacitive coupling, you only have to hold the electrodes close together and not touching, so you could put the electrodes within the glove fabric for ruggedness. One of the challenges here would be to choose a detector circuit that works quickly to avoid significant time delays.

You might also scan for contact between the four fingers and the thumb - as is often done with keypads. You might then include multiple combinations.

hi,
As youre in the UK, have at look at Maplins, they stock QuantumTunnelling Pills. Four per pack, about £2/pk.

They are a small pressure resistive pad, about 2-3mm sqr.
Resistance range ohms to megohms and they can carry a heavy current, if required.

**broken link removed**

Thank you for your replies, everyone!

I see what you mean now, Andy. Basically it was to reverse the roles of the thumb and the fingers.
You flatter me! Surely it can't be that good.

RadioRon: This seems perfect, thank you! I think I can work with capacitive coupling to implement my idea.

stevez: That's a good point. I was thinking of adding extra combinations once I have the basic prototype working.

ericgibbs: This looks interesting, however I'm not 100% sure I understand the logic behind them. I'll do some more research and see how I can fit them for my purpose.