Touch lamps! How do they work???

[JonnyStarks]

You know those lamps that brighten in increments when you touch them?
They have bugged me as long as I can remember.

It seems as though only touching it with your skin makes it work, and usually touching it with anything else, even something that conducts electricity, which eliminated my only theory on how they work.

 

[SLOviper]

All your answers can be found HERE.

Go HERE for a more technical answer.

Amazingly, it's quite a simple principle using human capacitance.