The basic switch components are drawn from Version 3 of the Volksswitch proof of concept. This design differs by adding a shield plate and a tag plate in place of all the electronic components and wires. Here’s the design in exploded form:
Aluminum foil or tape is attached to the underside of the round portion of the shield plate and the RFID tag is attached to the underside of the tag plate.
There are four small platforms in the corners of the switch base. The arms of the shield plate rest on these platforms midway through depressing the activation surface and allow the tag plate to separate from the shield plate which is otherwise held in contact by gravity.
The following video describes the assembly of the switch:
The following video uses a switch with an open side to illustrate how the shield plate and tag plate are first in contact and then separated during the depression of the activation surface:
The following video shows two switches in action:
This is a first design – just to prove the concept. Using gravity to hold the plates together is problematic in that it is easily defeated by bumping the switch or changing the orientation of the switch. It would be better to use some form of tension to hold the plates together and release or provide opposing tension to separate the plates when the activation surface is depressed.
Note: using the depression of the activation surface to “shield” the tag rather than “unshield” the tag would result in a simpler switch design. However, tying switch activation to hiding the tag would result in many more complications down the line. It would be a problem if every time the reader lost sight of the tag the downstream software interpreted it as a “positive” action by the switch user. There are too many unpredictable factors that could result in the reader momentarily losing sight of the tag.