7immy:
Hey thank you for your replies,I agree, the sharp IR sensors are over kill which is why I wondered what else was out there.
I found this pair (i think they will work together) but like the other ones i found i have no idea what distances can be achieved:
Phototransistor: http://www.maplin.co.uk/infrared-phototransistor-2252
Emitter: http://www.maplin.co.uk/high-power-infrared-emitting-diode-2253
another Emitter: http://www.maplin.co.uk/3mm-infrared-emitting-diode-48038I'm looking for something that can transmit over about 80cm. Could this pair really do that, or would i need to boost it's signal or oscillate something and if so how would i go about doing this?!
sorry for the simple questions, I'm a noob and I'm getting no luck on google
Maybe you could better detail exactly what kind of hand swipe you're looking to detect. Detecting a hand swipe 80cm away could be done with an IR emitter/receiver, but not maybe if your body was 100cm in front of the sensor as well. Basically, knowing exactly what the situation is would allow others to better suggest what may work best. For me, the problem with using IR to detect a hand swipe is that you may not be able to tell if it's a hand swipe 10cm away or someone walking by 100cm away. If that doesn't matter for your situation, maybe IR will work. I believe you would also need to know the distance to the object being swiped and not just that something is passing by at some unknown distance. But, that's just a guess as we don't know exactly what you're trying to do in the exact environment. You may want to consider a cheap ultrasonic sensor that can not only detect a swipe, but also the distance, which I believe would better work as a swipe detector.
Tim