About Dancer Design 

Dancer Design is a small business based in Ingleton, England. It is the trading name of electronics design engineer Chris Dancer. Housed in the i Centre, a converted school building, Dancer Design can build equipment on the premises, and for larger quantities we can outsource manufacture to our network of assembly companies and outworkers.

About me 

Although my academic background is in the biological sciences I have been working with electronics since 1980. In 1992 I began working at the Pain Relief Foundation in Liverpool and remained with them for 12 years. During this time I learned a great deal about biomedical electronics, worked with various devices for creating sensory stimuli and recording physiological signals, and developed several devices of my own design. I was also fortunate enough to be able to work with some of the most brilliant and knowledgeable people in the field of sensory neuroscience.
In 2004 I decided to go it alone and set up Dancer Design, with the aim of designing and building equipment principally for researchers in neuroscience and psychology, as well as pursuing some of my own projects and inventions.
My skills and knowledge include analog and audio electronics, digital electronics, computer interfacing, robotics, sensors, data acquisition, embedded microcontrollers, PCB design, LabVIEW programming, mechanical actuators, pneumatics, tactile psychophysics, MRI- and MEG-compatible devices, medical device safety regulations, transcutaneous nerve stimulation, physiological monitoring, Palm PDA programming, electronic music.
I pride myself on being able to find elegant and sometimes unusual solutions to interesting problems. 

My biomedexperts profile

Patents

GB2388632B - 2005-05-18 An interactive water fountain and a method of interacting with water to provide an auditory or visual effect.

Publications as author

Essick GK, McGlone F, Dancer C, Fabricant D, Ragin Y, Phillips N, Jones T, Guest S. Quantitative assessment of pleasant touch.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010 Feb;34(2):192-203. Epub 2009 Feb 21. PubMed PMID: 19896001.

Guest S, Wells M, Dancer C, Essick G. Validation of a handheld display device for an expandable labeled magnitude scale (LMS).
Chem Senses. 2006 Jul;31(6):515-20. Epub 2006 Apr 13. PubMed PMID: 16614137.

Giabbiconi CM, Dancer C, Zopf R, Gruber T, Müller MM. Selective spatial attention to left or right hand flutter sensation modulates the steady-state somatosensory evoked potential.
Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Jun;20(1):58-66. PubMed PMID: 15130590.

Hagen MC, Franzén O, McGlone F, Essick G, Dancer C, Pardo JV. Tactile motion activates the human middle temporal/V5 (MT/V5) complex.
Eur J Neurosci. 2002 Sep;16(5):957-64. PubMed PMID: 12372032.

Tipper SP, Phillips N, Dancer C, Lloyd D, Howard LA, McGlone F. Vision influences tactile perception at body sites that cannot be viewed directly.
Exp Brain Res. 2001 Jul;139(2):160-7. PubMed PMID: 11497057.

Tipper SP, Lloyd D, Shorland B, Dancer C, Howard LA, McGlone F. Vision influences tactile perception without proprioceptive orienting.
Neuroreport. 1998 Jun 1;9(8):1741-4. PubMed PMID: 9665593.

Publications as technical contributor or supplier of equipment

Löken LS, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Olausson H. Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans.
Nat Neurosci. 2009 May;12(5):547-8. Epub 2009 Apr 12. PubMed PMID: 19363489.

Cascio C, McGlone F, Folger S, Tannan V, Baranek G, Pelphrey KA, Essick G. Tactile perception in adults with autism: a multidimensional psychophysical study.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2008 Jan;38(1):127-37. Epub 2007 Apr 6. PubMed PMID: 17415630; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2185746.

Guest S, Essick G, Young M, Lee A, Phillips N, McGlone F. Oral hydration, parotid salivation and the perceived pleasantness of small water volumes.
Physiol Behav. 2006 Dec 30;89(5):724-34. Epub 2006 Sep 26. PubMed PMID: 17005215.