Distance between two objects using TWS-434A Transmitter & RWS-434 Receiver modules.
Hi everyone!
It has been a long time since my last post in here; but definitely happy I am to be back to find the help I need.
I am setting up a personal project.
My project requires that I be able to accurately evaluate the distance between two components.
More precisely, I would like to be able to get a live update on the distance between my left and right foot as I am walking or running or going up the stairs.
I knew that I obviously needed some kind of sensors for this type of job.
At first it would sound like I need a montion sensor or something of the like; but far from that, as I made some researches and found out that the motion sensors currently available on the market all need some kind of static reference point that usually can sense motion or capture motion only within a 5 m radius at max from the base station.
That is far from what I need. So, I figured that I need a transmitter and a receiver: the transmitter will be attached to one of my feet and the receiver to the other.
When walking, we can get our feet apart up to 70 cm in average; which is well within the range of the TWS-434A Transmitter & RWS-434 Receiver modules.
By evaluating the time it will take for the receiver to get a random signal from the transmitter, combined with my knowledge of the transmition speed and my awareness of the fact that the distance travelled by the transmitted signal will be proportional to the time elapsed since then till reception, I expect to be able to evaluate the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. I expect the time elapsed to be in the milliseconds range. I plan on using a Basic Stamp microcontroller to do the math.
Frankly, I am not even 90% sure that this would practically work; and this is exactly why I am posting this thread.
I will be extremely appreciative of any comments and/or suggestions that you would care to make.
Thank you.
It has been a long time since my last post in here; but definitely happy I am to be back to find the help I need.
I am setting up a personal project.
My project requires that I be able to accurately evaluate the distance between two components.
More precisely, I would like to be able to get a live update on the distance between my left and right foot as I am walking or running or going up the stairs.
I knew that I obviously needed some kind of sensors for this type of job.
At first it would sound like I need a montion sensor or something of the like; but far from that, as I made some researches and found out that the motion sensors currently available on the market all need some kind of static reference point that usually can sense motion or capture motion only within a 5 m radius at max from the base station.
That is far from what I need. So, I figured that I need a transmitter and a receiver: the transmitter will be attached to one of my feet and the receiver to the other.
When walking, we can get our feet apart up to 70 cm in average; which is well within the range of the TWS-434A Transmitter & RWS-434 Receiver modules.
By evaluating the time it will take for the receiver to get a random signal from the transmitter, combined with my knowledge of the transmition speed and my awareness of the fact that the distance travelled by the transmitted signal will be proportional to the time elapsed since then till reception, I expect to be able to evaluate the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. I expect the time elapsed to be in the milliseconds range. I plan on using a Basic Stamp microcontroller to do the math.
Frankly, I am not even 90% sure that this would practically work; and this is exactly why I am posting this thread.
I will be extremely appreciative of any comments and/or suggestions that you would care to make.
Thank you.
Comments
At 70cm, the radio transmission will take 2.3 nanoseconds to travel between your feet.
It might be possible to time an ultrasound pulse accurately enough to use it find the distance between items (it would still be a difficult project IMO).
As Dugene (sorry for the mis-spell) said, the time is in the range of nano seconds, and the BS2 can only function as fast as a few milliseconds.
My suggestion to capture movement is looking into an accelerometer, with a bit of coding know-how, you should be able to work out when you are moving up the stairs (If that is what you are trying to sense).
Hope this helps!
-John