Need Help Finding What Kind of Sensor I Need

Hello,

First off, just as a fair warning, I am a newbie with Arduino and electronics. Anyways I am making a project where I need to be able to sense when somebody passes a certain point in a hallway. I plan to use two sensors to know which way the person is traveling. I cannot find a sensor that will work. Here are the constraints I need for the sensor:

  • be able to sense a human body
  • 0-degree viewing angle
  • can sense things at least 1.5ft away
  • can work with two side by side (ultrasonic will not work)
  • not triggered by house lights turning on/off
  • no down time / always active
  • preferably doesn't use much energy

I tried this sensor but the delay time is annoying: http://henrysbench.capnfatz.com/henrys-bench/arduino-sensors-and-input/arduino-hc-sr501-motion-sensor-tutorial/

Does anyone know what type of sensor will work for this application? If you do please leave a link to where I can buy that type.

Thanks in advance!

IR or laser beams will do the job.
Do a search on this forum for many examples on how to count people passing, such as this thread.

Don't common house lights give off IR? Wouldn't that screw with the sensors or no? Also, can you leave a link for the IR sensor you are talking about?

Thanks

EDIT: I found these... IR Break Beam Sensors with Premium Wire Header Ends - 3mm LEDs : ID 2167 : $2.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

I would just have to have one receiver on the left side of the hallway and one on the right so that I can have some differentiation, right?

EDIT2: Actually that may not work, it says it can only sense up to 10 inches...

Any laser break beam will work. Don't worry about house lights, they are irrelevant.
Although the PIR motion sensors can work just fine, it would take more time and effort for you to understand and not be annoyed with them.

OK, I can't find any of those break beam sensors that would work. The hallway is a little over 2.5ft wide and the ones I have found can only sense up to 20 inches. Also, do these break beam sensors have that annoying delay time thing that the PIRs I own have? I really want to avoid that feature.

Thanks again!

The break beam you linked to is not a laser.
A laser break beam would work even from you to the moon.
And no, they won't annoy you.

Can you leave a link to an actual laser break beam? Also, are there any other others that consume less energy?

Thanks

Start here.
The top result is one that comfortably reaches your distance.

May you please post a link to a sensor that fits all of the constraints I have listed above.

Thanks

The passive Grid Eye (8x8 pixel thermal IR camera) from Panasonic solves this problem neatly.

You will have to do a tiny bit of image processing to detect a person and the direction of movement. Break out board with USB and Arduino pinouts available here.