Newbie: Seeking advice on distance sensor within an interactive artwork

Hello All,

My name is Laurence. I am a PhD student researching ways of visualising conversations around climate change in the public forum.
I have been developing an installation artwork, a proof of concept video you can find below:

https://youtu.be/SHr4qAzNy2o

The idea for this installation is that viewers enter a dark room. On a far wall a grid of projected videos plays, with the viewer enveloped in a sound environment of busy chattering voices from the videos. As viewers get closer, a sensor swtich is activated and flood lights drown out the projector, revealing a grid of documents with an image in the middle. When the lights go on the sound from the videos cuts off. The lights stay on (and audio off) when the viewer is within a certain distance from the artwork, but they would go off when they exit this zone (i.e. leaving the work).

In the proof of concept, I simply switched the lights on by hand. The audio was edited in, so this was just muted on Premiere Pro during the 'lit' section.

I've been doing research on ways to automate this in the physical space. I had thought about those sensors that are used to activate sliding doors, but wasn't sure how this would be pegged to the AV setup. A bit of googling and it seems an arduino set up, with a distance sensor such as the Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F would work, though its range may be a bit limited.

I'm a complete newbie to all this, essentially I want the trigger to fire when viewers are around 150cms away from the video grid, and this activates some kind of code that switches off the audio and turns on the flood lights. If anyone has any advice on how to set this up, that would be amazing.

My Best,

Laurence

Split the project into smaller parts and search for part solutions.
A usual mistake is searching for the entire project, that is never found.

Hi,
For switching the various devices you could look at this type of relay board: 5V Relay Module 1,2,4,6,8 Channel Arduino Raspberry Pi ESP8266 ESP32 Optocoupler | eBay
They are very easy to wire to an Arduino and simple to use.
Whilst these can switch mains directly it would probably be better to keep everything low voltage (12 or 24v) to cut out safety issues.

For the person sensor you could use a PIR module such as: HC-SR501 IR Pyroelectric Infrared PIR Motion Human Sensor Detector for Arduino | eBay
or maybe an infra red beam type sensor which detects when someone breaks the beam such as: TCRT5000 Reflective Ir Beam Sensor Module for Arduino Sensor 5 | eBay
This is a reflecting type but you would probably want one with separate emitter and sensors
opposite side of the door?

There are as you can imagine lots of possibilities, your best plan may be to get hold of an Arduino and a few sensors and have a play to get a feel for how it all works then look at what is available that you can make use of.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE

Getting humans to do what you want/imagine will be the most challenging. For example, "Wet paint" and without context you understand how a "Stand Here" mark is not a guarantee. Learn from failures. Have fun with it.

Amazing! Thankyou for this - will buy some kit and have a play round :slight_smile:

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Actually a huge influence behind this work! Love this video. Incredibly well executed !

The simpler way would be as @alanesq says, PIR modules. They are like the ones found in home security indoor motion sensors. Low cost, very easy to use and if you need a more focused "beam" that a person walks past, just inset them in a bit something like a toilet paper tube.
Sure, a great way to switch lights would be with relays but again, as @alanesq says, for safety in a fixed facility you may be uncomfortable or unable to switch mains power.
My suggestion for something like AC floodlights is to plug them in to a suitable, switched power bar and toggle the switch as needed with a servo that you would get from any hobby grade RC plane/car shop. 1/10 scale servo, in other words.
Then just run an extension cord from the power bar/Arduino setup to where the light is for convenience.

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Oh, and you may need to consider longer wire runs. You can't go too long from an Arduino pin to a device (I've gotten away with about 25 feet from input to pin, but guys smarter than me here will explain that on long wire runs, the wire starts to behave like an antenna and unexpected things can happen).
I find that 20 gauge speaker wire is great for these runs.

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