Touch on LEDs Circuits

[Coded_Bananas]

Can anyone point me in the direction of making an LED light up when touched and then turn of either by touching again or a reset button?

My idea is to build a rather large matrix and be able to "draw" on the board lighting up the leds when they are touched. I figure it could be done with an IR Led and Receiver or using the led as a sensor.

Some circuit diagrams would be far more useful to me as i'm a bit of amateur and can't readily design my own circuits. Any kits etc that you could buy is also a bonus.

Many Thanks

 

[picbits]

Something like this perhaps ?

YouTube - Fischtisch - interactive LED matrix

From what I've seen you need to charge the LED up with a small amount of charge then read the charge on the LED. Good keywords to Google are capacitance LED sensor

 

[Coded_Bananas]

Something similiar yes but I would want the leds to stay on until manually turned off either by touch them again or a reset button/switch.

I'll have a google on those keywords, thanks for the tip.

 

[shokjok]

You may want to interface a conductive surface ( aluminum, steel or copper plate) to a one-shot or RS flip-flop driving the LED. Works best indoors due to stray AC field. CMOS ICs are best for this application, since you can use a 9V or 12V smoke alarm battery and make this project mobile.