These sensors change resistance when bent. They can be placed alongside each finger to determine which fingers are bent and by how much. We bought flex sensors in two different sizes since some fingers are longer than others.

We choose a cotton glove because it’s comfortable, can stretch to fit, and can be sewn into. We wrapped the flex sensors in non-conductive electrical tape, sewed them onto each finger, and soldered wires to each lead so that we could build a circuit.

We added static resistors to each flex sensor to create a voltage divider circuit. From this, we can determine what fraction of the total resistance (static + flex sensor) the flex sensor contributes. This tells us how much the sensor is bent.

Certain letters of the alphabet resembled each other too closely for us to distinguish between them solely based on the flex sensors. So we added three buttons that would provide another variable for separability between the letters.