Short Range Motion Sensor---Advice/Guidance/Help

samw2

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I am looking for a short range motion detector. Something that could sense a basketball going right in front of it, but not a player moving around a few feet away. Ideally, it would be able to hook up to a computer and simply log in whenever the basketball comes near it. I do not know what the exact product name is for what I am looking for, I don't know if it exists, and I do not know where to look.

Specifically, I would like 2. 1 for above the rim, so that it can detect evety time a shot is attempted, and another under the net so that it can record when a shot goes in.

Any thoughts are appreciated, thank you very much!

Mike Green

1) Please delete your duplicate thread. Use the "X" icon in the right upper corner of your initial message.

2) Have you looked through the sensors that Parallax sells?

3) A PING))) might work. It's not really a motion detector so much as an object detector, but an object detector is really what you want (to detect the presence briefly of a basketball). You might be able to mount one attached to one of the brackets holding the rim, then the other one might be attached to the backboard below the rim so it's protected by the rim from the balls themselves. The pair of PING)))s could be triggered sequentially every 50 to 100ms which should give you more than enough time resolution to catch the ball.

samw2

Mr. Green, thank you for your help. I really appreciate the input and I am going to look into these PING))) devices immediately.

Chip Cox

The ping would probably work well on the top side to show when a shot is attempted. But I'm concerned about the bottom side. I think the ping would see the net and not distinguish between the net and a ball or potentially a ball falling short and hitting the net. I haven't played with them myself, but maybe the Piezo Film Vibra Tab Mass or the FlexiForce sensor kit. You could still probably use the ping, but you would probably need to include some logic to only accept a ping reading from the net if there was first a ping reading from above the rim. I don't know, sounds like an interesting project. Another thought, how do they do it in hockey??

samw2

First off, thank you so much for these thoughts! They are great!

The problem of the net moving is certainly one for consideration- perhaps something, almost like a lever, could be put just under the net to record when the ball goes in. I will look into those options: the Piezo Film Vibra Tab Mass and Flexiforce sensor kit. They both seem like great solutions for monitoring the shots that go in. And great point with hockey- I will research it. Someone on a different forum suggested the RFID chip technology, which would actually go into the basketball. I think they use this sort of technology in the world cup for soccer, but I am not sure how it works with hockey.

Thanks agan!

samw2

First off, thank you so much for these thoughts! They are great!

The problem of the net moving is certainly one for consideration- perhaps something, almost like a lever, could be put just under the net to record when the ball goes in. I will look into those options: the Piezo Film Vibra Tab Mass and Flexiforce sensor kit. They both seem like great solutions for monitoring the shots that go in. And great point with hockey- I will research it. Someone on a different forum suggested the RFID chip technology, which would actually go into the basketball. I think they use this sort of technology in the world cup for soccer, but I am not sure how it works with hockey.

Thanks again!

Chip Cox

RFID is interesting, but it's a range technology, so the ball rimming out could easily be read and sensed as a shot going through. Depending on the antenna and label, it's going to pickup any tags with a few inches to several yards. But it's not very directional.

W9GFO

I wonder if the Ping))) would even see the net, and if it did, perhaps it could be modified to ping more softly so that the net could not reflect enough to be detected.

Rich H

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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.

Chip Cox

The signal from a ping is reflected by any object in front of it. Granted, the signal coming back from the net may be weak so it might not be seen. With the net there though, I would think that a ping could be subject to false positives. Althought that could be fun, if you're the team with that goal, and every so often a couple of points would just get added for fun <grin>.

Another question though for Sam, how are you going to differentiate between a 2 point shot and a 3 point shot or a free throw??

samw2

Wow, again, these thoughts are really helping me out, thanks guys!

As far as recognizing where the shot is from- I have a friend writing up some hardware and software for this. If all goes as planned, I will be able to attatch a screen to it showing a basketball court from above. The screen will highlight the part of the court that the shooter is to shoot from, and then log the statistics of shot percentages etc with the sensors.

samw2

Wow, again, these thoughts are really helping me out, thanks guys!

As far as recognizing where the shot is from- I have a friend writing up some hardware and software for this. If all goes as planned, I will be able to attatch a screen to it showing a basketball court from above. The screen will highlight the part of the court that the shooter is to shoot from, and then log the statistics of shot percentages etc with the sensors.