Teaching Advanced Touch Sensing Technologies Using ARM Cortex-M based Microcontroller

This paper presents our experiences of introducing in a senior level microprocessor course the latest touch sensing technologies, especially programming capacitive touch sensing devices and touchscreen. The emphasis is on the teaching practice details, including the enhanced course contents, outcomes and lecture and lab organization. By utilizing the software package provided by Atmel, students are taught to efficiently build MCU-based embedded applications which control various touch sensing devices. This work makes use of the 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 microprocessor to control complex touch sensing devices (i.e., touch keys, touch slider and touchscreen). The Atmel SAM 4S-EK2 board is chosen as the main development board employed for practicing the touch devices programming. Multiple capstone projects have been developed, for example adaptive touch-based servo motor control, and calculator and games on the touchscreen. Our primary experiences indicate that the project-based learning approach with the utilization of the selected microcontroller board and software package is efficient and practical for teaching advanced touch sensing techniques. Students have shown the great interest and the capability in adopting touch devices into their senior design projects to improve human machine interface.