Touch-sensitive concrete could shake up security in SA

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Touch-sensitive concrete could shake up security in SA

Andre Broekman, a Civil Engineering PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria, has developed touch-sensitive concrete — a technology that could transform home and business security in South Africa.

Broekman demonstrated the concept in his concrete macro keyboard prototype. The technology essentially uses a touch breakdown sensor to measure changes in the capacitance over a concrete medium.

The technology could be used in home and business security solutions, removing the need for equipment such as electric fencing and alarm systems.
 
Wynand Steyn, head of the Civil Engineering department at the University of Pretoria, told MyBroadband that it could be adapted to send an alert — to you or your security services — as soon as someone touches your boundary wall.

This could reduce the need for electric fencing, allowing South Africans to protect their properties and businesses with an invisible solution.
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Really?

Is the capacitive sensor going to shock the crap out of someone that tries to jump over a concrete wall?

No it will not, all it will do is alert you to the fact that one or more criminals have just jumped over your wall.

Whereas an electric fence acts as a deterrent because criminals don't really like getting their crap shocked out of them.

So let's say you try and combine this magic concrete with an electric fence, will the high voltage pulse going through the electric fence wires set off the capacitive touch sensors in the concrete? I bet it would, but that's not necessarily a show stopper as you could code to detect anything out of the ordinary (that's either an absence of the predictable electric fence pulse, or another detection the cannot be an electric fence pulse).

The technology also has the potential to replace internal alarm systems by implementing it in the flooring of a building.
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No, you still need one or more microcontrollers and microprocessors to monitor the sensors and do something intelligent with the sensor data (like send alerts).

It could then send an alert when someone walks through different areas of the building.
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Sure that would be cool if people wanted concrete floors in their homes and offices, unless the intention is to build these sensor nets into other materials like floor tiles, carpets, vinyl flooring, wooden flooring, etc.

Broekman explained that the technology could also be used to aid the visually impaired. His prototype keyboard has tactile concrete keys engraved with symbols.

The engraved symbols would give a visually impaired individual a better idea of what button they are pressing.
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It's as if this guy has never heard of braille before.


I would bet good money that visually impaired people can type better and faster on a braille keyboard than many sighted people that are still glancing at the keys on their non-braille keyboards, whilst visually impaired people have muscle memory for the position of every key on their keyboard (even non-braille keyboards).

I would also bet that a tactile response from pressing keys on a keyboard is more satisfying than touching cold hard concrete keys (even if there is a haptic response built into the design of the keyboard).

The sensor then relays the information to a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller chip programmed with the macro commands.
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That is a nice use case for RP2040 microcontrollers.

A small LCD is mounted on the front of the keyboard that displays uptime, which button is pressed, and how many buttons had been pressed during its uptime.
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So it's also a keylogger, all your passwords are revealed to everyone that walks past. Presumably the LCD is only for debugging during development and not intended to display key presses on a retail model.

I'm not trying to piss on this guy's parade but some of the use cases mentioned in the article are hair-brained ideas that only belong in the world of academia.
 
As interesting as this ........ I have to ask, is this a problem looking for a solution, or a solution looking for a problem?

Example - a few years back, we made a basin that that lights up. The same concept was used in concrete walls that made them semi transparent. They would allow light in without compromising privacy. A typical academic project.
We believed this would revolutionise the market, and so on to save power.
The African solution was to put a 2l coke bottle into the roof.
1647795043662.png

As far as security goes, there are plenty devices to tell me that someone is in my personal space .... the simplest being the mutt. The mutt has an additional benefit ------------ teeth.

Capacitive textiles have been about for some time now ..... we first showed these at Techtextil Frankfurt about 20 years ago. They were used to measure fireman's heart rates and vitals, in BRVs to monitor soldiers in the field, and the Taiwanese made a knitted jersey that was a little piano type thingy.

I hope that this guys solution finds the right problem ...... but either way, its pretty damn cool.
 
Sapphiron said:
Looking at my braai plek, I am struggling to see where I need to have capacitive buttons?
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Summon one of the wives making salad in the kitchen to send out another round of cold ones for the boys?

Personally I'd like an outside wall that screaming like a banshee when someone touches it..
 
j4ck455 said:
Really?

Is the capacitive sensor going to shock the crap out of someone that tries to jump over a concrete wall?

No it will not, all it will do is alert you to the fact that one or more criminals have just jumped over your wall.

Whereas an electric fence acts as a deterrent because criminals don't really like getting their crap shocked out of them.
Click to expand...
Glad you think an electric fence scares them even in the slightest :ROFL:

Electric fences mean NOTHING without monitoring on them. You simply throw a blanket over and you won't get shocked or simply insulate your body to have no path to ground.
 
grok said:
Summon one of the wives making salad in the kitchen to send out another round of cold ones for the boys?

Personally I'd like an outside wall that screaming like a banshee when someone touches it..
Click to expand...
A deafening cacophony of vuvuzelas might be easier to muster compared to banshees (just record and playback any local soccer match sound track).

upup said:
What happen when my dog pee on the wall.
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Your armed response company will be alerted.

Louis72 said:
Glad you think an electric fence scares them even in the slightest :ROFL:

Electric fences mean NOTHING without monitoring on them. You simply throw a blanket over and you won't get shocked or simply insulate your body to have no path to ground.
Click to expand...
Yes, monitoring is essential, and an electric fence is just the first layer of perimeter security, you have to have multiple layers and cope with loadshitting.
 
Electric fences? Are we still in the '90s? Am I missing something or have criminals gotten too smart for that?
 
TEXTILE GUY said:
As interesting as this ........ I have to ask, is this a problem looking for a solution, or a solution looking for a problem?

Example - a few years back, we made a basin that that lights up. The same concept was used in concrete walls that made them semi transparent. They would allow light in without compromising privacy. A typical academic project.
We believed this would revolutionise the market, and so on to save power.
The African solution was to put a 2l coke bottle into the roof.
View attachment 1273958

As far as security goes, there are plenty devices to tell me that someone is in my personal space .... the simplest being the mutt. The mutt has an additional benefit ------------ teeth.

Capacitive textiles have been about for some time now ..... we first showed these at Techtextil Frankfurt about 20 years ago. They were used to measure fireman's heart rates and vitals, in BRVs to monitor soldiers in the field, and the Taiwanese made a knitted jersey that was a little piano type thingy.

I hope that this guys solution finds the right problem ...... but either way, its pretty damn cool.
Click to expand...
My mutt runs away. Calls me, Then I am pissd and get my Gun. Then the Baddies Really start to dance.
 
PS = Windows

That's a lie right there.


Secondly it won't work when you make it a wall.

The capacitance is not the same when you go beyond a 1cm blokkie.
 
This isn't new. Capacitance can be detected in just about any substance and have been incorporated into good alarm systems. People also don't like touch sensitive devices in general as you can't keep you finger on one place while touching another like with a tactile keyboard.
 
j4ck455 said:
Really?

Is the capacitive sensor going to shock the crap out of someone that tries to jump over a concrete wall?

No it will not, all it will do is alert you to the fact that one or more criminals have just jumped over your wall.

Whereas an electric fence acts as a deterrent because criminals don't really like getting their crap shocked out of them.

So let's say you try and combine this magic concrete with an electric fence, will the high voltage pulse going through the electric fence wires set off the capacitive touch sensors in the concrete? I bet it would, but that's not necessarily a show stopper as you could code to detect anything out of the ordinary (that's either an absence of the predictable electric fence pulse, or another detection the cannot be an electric fence pulse).


No, you still need one or more microcontrollers and microprocessors to monitor the sensors and do something intelligent with the sensor data (like send alerts).


Sure that would be cool if people wanted concrete floors in their homes and offices, unless the intention is to build these sensor nets into other materials like floor tiles, carpets, vinyl flooring, wooden flooring, etc.


It's as if this guy has never heard of braille before.


I would bet good money that visually impaired people can type better and faster on a braille keyboard than many sighted people that are still glancing at the keys on their non-braille keyboards, whilst visually impaired people have muscle memory for the position of every key on their keyboard (even non-braille keyboards).

I would also bet that a tactile response from pressing keys on a keyboard is more satisfying than touching cold hard concrete keys (even if there is a haptic response built into the design of the keyboard).


That is a nice use case for RP2040 microcontrollers.


So it's also a keylogger, all your passwords are revealed to everyone that walks past. Presumably the LCD is only for debugging during development and not intended to display key presses on a retail model.

I'm not trying to piss on this guy's parade but some of the use cases mentioned in the article are hair-brained ideas that only belong in the world of academia.
Click to expand...
While the concrete is also useless, to be fair the electric fence is too. Most people i know who's houses were robbed had electric fences. They were either cut, bypassed or etc. Other than triggering an alarm, their voltage is useless.
 
neoprema said:
While the concrete is also useless, to be fair the electric fence is too. Most people i know who's houses were robbed had electric fences. They were either cut, bypassed or etc. Other than triggering an alarm, their voltage is useless.
Click to expand...
That sounds like survivorship bias, they're in areas with more crime so they got an electric fence, still probably more likely to be broken in than other areas.

We had an electric fence, and before that we had 3 break-ins, after that none, has nothing to do with the fact that they caught the person who kept breaking in or that we got a dog a few months after that (was not the reason for the dog, adopted her as she was a stray).
 
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