Its creator from was kind enough to explain how the human body, the skin, and the function as a capacitor, as the project ended up being as much of a learning experience as it was a tech experiment:

"A capacitor consists of two conductive 'plates' with a dielectric insulator in the middle and it's used in everything from power supplies to radios. [T]he negatively charged plate is our body (ground), the positively charged one is the connection we have with the Arduino, and the dielectric insulator is our skin! Cool, eh?"

And cool it is! Six aluminum contacts placed in the up, down, left, right, A, and B positions of the controller charge the capacitor, translating to on-screen movement in the (also homemade) Spongebob Squarepants game. .

If you are interested in creating your own capacitive device, Treehouse Projects has , from parts to process, and even outlined the coding of the fantastically silly jellyfish-netting Spongebob game. Making your own controller has never been so easy!

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