Chapter 6. Object detection
This chapter covers
- Detecting objects with ultrasound
- Range finding with active infrared
- Detecting motion with passive infrared
In this chapter we’re going to begin exploring how to get meaningful data from the objects and environments around your Arduino controller and use it in your Arduino programs. Of course, meaningful data could mean any number of things: temperature, sound, light, color, and so on. To start, we’ll focus on detecting objects.
There are a number of fields where this is important, including robotics, monitoring, interactive applications, security, and home automation, to name a few. There are three simple technologies that this chapter will explore: ultrasonic sensors, active infrared sensors, and passive infrared sensors. All are relatively low-power and easy to configure and control, but each has distinct advantages and disadvantages that you’ll want to understand before creating sensing applications.
We’ll start with ultrasound.
