ano said:The price of low-cost LIDAR units will really be a boon to the home automation world. This should open up many types of new lowcost sensors. LIDAR uses a laser to measure the distance to an object. I have a LIDAR tape measure that i think i paid about $800 for 10 years ago. It can measure out to 300' with 1/32 accuracy. I have used it for years, but now the technology is getting much cheaper. You can buy LIDAR sensors that go about 30 ft for under $100 now.
Why would you need one? For years i have been attempting to make a reliable bed sensor, to detect when a person/people are in bed. I had a reliable one for a few years that used a spring sensor under one foot of the bed and it worked, but it was a pain to adjust. So my new idea is to use a LIDAR unit attached to a bed post to measure the distance to the blanket. I thought about using ultrasonic but there is some evidence that long-term exposure is not good. A LIDAR bed sensor may work nicely.
Thanks, that looks real interesting, but wonder how it works. I've tried my share of motion sensors without much luck. Many many years ago i worked at a company that makes passive IR sensors, but the problem with them is that they require movement to work. I've tested the pulsor sensor and even spoken to the creator of the device, but again, these can only tell changes, so it would know when you get into bed or out of bed, but it has no idea if you are in bed or out of bed. its a tough problem. IR beams just over the bed would work, but it has to be WAF approved.giesen said:There's a Kickstarter for a product called Wakē https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58395680/wake-welcome-to-the-dawn-of-bedroom-robotics that uses a body heat sensor to detect bed occupancy (and also uses lights to gently wake you). They have reached their IFTTT goal so it looks like some integration is possible, though I'm not sure to what extent. It may be of some interest to you.
ano said:Thanks, that looks real interesting, but wonder how it works. I've tried my share of motion sensors without much luck. Many many years ago i worked at a company that makes passive IR sensors, but the problem with them is that they require movement to work. I've tested the pulsor sensor and even spoken to the creator of the device, but again, these can only tell changes, so it would know when you get into bed or out of bed, but it has no idea if you are in bed or out of bed. its a tough problem. IR beams just over the bed would work, but it has to be WAF approved.