Capacitance touch switch

A capacitance touch switch works using body capacitance, a property of the human body that gives it great electrical characteristics. The lamp keeps charging and discharging its metal exterior to detect changes in capacitance. When a person touches it, it increases the capacitance and triggers the switch.

Capacitance switches are available commercially as integrated circuits from for example:

• Omron: Model B6TS04LT (4 channel) and B6TS08LT (8 channel).
• Quantum Research Group: Model QT 113.

the problem is these parts cost 120 bucks and are made by a japanese company .... we can always temporarily use a manual switch which can be l8tr replaced by a proximity sensor .. the only problem being if any bee or leaf or something comes too close to it it will still acticvate ... barring that proximity sensors are commonly used like in line followers ... something which makes our job easier ... what say.... ?.. I've even got a circuit for this..