Motion/Human Detection Sensor Project - Wireless?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi there,

I'm currently in the "brainstorming" stages of a project involving human detection sensors. I have very little experience with Arduino, besides a 3pi robot programming project completed one year ago.

Basically, the objective is to achieve a sensor which can detect a human body, by motion or otherwise. Initially I had thought of a laser beam, which when broken, would produce an output. The sensor is to be placed/ to detect across a 20-70 foot distance. However, my issue here is wirelessly connecting the output of the sensor to a computer a number of miles away. I.e. An operator would hear an alarm, check their computer and see the output sensed, or something along those lines. I was wondering is it possible, to build a prototype involving an arduino device, that detects a human, and outputs its detection to the user, wirelessly?

I know this is similar to home security systems but I am new to this, and want to learn if it's feasible to do this via arduino? If so, how would I even start, which device, sensor etc... Would suit best and would be suitable to outdoors?

Apologies if this seems all rather basic and perhaps a silly question but I can't seem to find anything specifying if a wireless connection is possible. If the system is outdoors and cannot connect to the Internet but is linked to a certain user or computer?

Kind regards and thanks in advance.

EDIT:

I did find this: https://www.openhomeautomation.net/wireless-motion-sensor-arduino/

Which is the general idea of what I'm looking for, but can this be done with a laser detection sensor of some sort? Also, how would I go about programming this to sound an alarm on the users/operator's computer or device? Would this be sensitive enough for outdoor conditions?

2

The answer is yes, it is feasible. I bought a Doppler radar sensor, and an Adafruit CC3000 wifi card. The doppler sensor puts out a square wave when something is moving toward or away from it. This input is hooked to an interrupt on an Nano, so that such motion will be detected. The incoming square waves are generally somewhere in the range of 5 - 20 Hz.

Once detected, with enough repetitions to be sure that something is really there, I send data to the wifi card, formulated in such a way that my cell phone receives a text message. This can be done with ATT and Verizon phones -- I don't know about the rest. Of course you could send an email any email destination.

I actually back up my doppler signals by using an electret microphone to listen for ambient noise level. When I'm not home, that noise level will generally not change much. But motion and activity will increase the noise level or create some short spikes, so it becomes a second level of certainty as to the presence of someone in the area. That may not work in some environments.