Automatic Room Light Controller with Visitor Counter

hme

I need to do a similar project as the above title. I have basic stamp 2 microcontroller. I can only find some brief information from the web but it is using different microcontroller. The information is also too brief and too scattered to get me started with the project. Anyone do a similar project using parallax microcontroller before? I would be much appreciated if someone can give me some guidances and point me to the useful resources.

garyg

When in this type of situation what I usually do is:
1. create a list of facts from your research.
2. Write in your own words, exactly what you want to accomplish.
3. Compare your accomplishment goal with the list of known facts.
4. Do research on the facts that you have not resolved with the list created in step1.
5. When you have most of the answers to your questions from step4, start to develop your project.

This is the type of project that starts out as an idea.
The idea needs to have enough facts understood before it can be turned into something that you can touch and use.

I hope these suggestions help you out.

Duane Degn

Part of Gary's #2 on the list would be to describe the room where you want to count visitors.

Are the people going to entering through a doorway? Could you use an electric eye like a garage door opener uses to keep the door from closing on objects?

There was a someone on the forum not too long ago how wanted to count people. IIRC it was quite a challenge since it was hard to identify two people as separate individuals if they were standing close together.

Besides the light beam possibility, it would also be possible to detect people with an ultrasound sensor.

Could you use a pad on the floor for detection?

There are lots of different sensors that could be used. The best (or at least a good) sensor for this application will depend on your exact requirements.

erco

I made one a few years back with a BS1 (!) which used 2 break beams spaced horizontally across a cubicle doorway. With 2 beams, you can tell whether a person is entering or leaving (which beam is broken first,a bit like a quadrature encoder). So it could keep track of how many people are in the cube. It switched the lights on when there was one or more people in the cube, and switched off when the last person left. It worked well and people dug it. A doorway is a good "filter" to make sure people go in single file, making them easy to count.

Of course, people try to fool it, wedging thru the door two at a time, or waving hands across the sensors. People just naturally feel superior when they cause the machine to fail...