I have a project in mind for a robot which is able to recognize surfaces, and thought about including the following sensors:
- a temperature sensor
- a colour sensor, or a complex of electronic components to determine a colour
- and a texture sensor, or, as above, a complex of components to fulfill the purpose
Now, I did some research on finding a(preferably small) texture sensor for soldering into an electronic circuit, similar to those little temperature sensors one can buy. I already thought that "small" would probably turn out to be not small at all before I searched. But my research has been fruitless. Not just fruitless like in "I can't find exactly what I want." but fruitless like in "I cannot find anything similar to what I want."...
Most things that turned up either were scientific papers about whole devices, or whole devices for purchase. Some company even choose "Structure Sensor" as the name of their iPad-compatible 3D scanner, which made the search utterly depressing as every second article I found is about buying some pre-built iPad device.
All I need is the electronic component, nothing else. So hope that any of you people can spare me some research time and recommend me a company/site/whatever which sells such texture sensors.
(Btw., I do know that surface sensors are probably a bit way more complex than temperature sensors, and my hope for getting what I want is low, but just because I cannot find something, ot does not mean that it doesn't exist.)