Sleep detector using PIR?
bulkhead
Posts: 405
I came up with the idea (ironically, while lying awake at night) of using a stamp to track down my average time spent in bed before actually falling asleep. I'm sure it would yield some interesting data if it worked...Anways, would the PIR work for such an application? I guess it needs to be sensitive enough to detect tossing and turning (maybe even the movement of an arm or two under the covers) but not trigger during usual breathing.
The stamp could be programmed to mark a timer after its detected no movement for a set period of time (say, 10 minutes). I can't figure out how to get the stamp to shut off after completeting its task, or a way of storing the data (time) so I can check it the next morning. Anyone try this before?
The stamp could be programmed to mark a timer after its detected no movement for a set period of time (say, 10 minutes). I can't figure out how to get the stamp to shut off after completeting its task, or a way of storing the data (time) so I can check it the next morning. Anyone try this before?
Comments
One of the signs of sleep apnea (breathing stops and loud snoring and gasping for air) is what many think is insomnia. They lay awake and the clock spins into the wee hours, each time they look at the clock and say gee I have not fallen asleep yet when what is really happening is they keep waking up from a stage 1 or 2 sleep and don't realize they just woke themselves up with loud snore or an apnea wakes them up.
So, your idea would tell how active a person is as they thrash around in the first 4 stages of sleep and when they do reach REM they would be very still, actually REM sleep paralyzes you while you are in it so you can’t move. I know a guy who wakes up sometimes and he is indeed paralyzed, can’t move a muscle, then it passes and he gets up.
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Think outside the BOX!
If you had a second one aimed directly at you, it could recognize and record movements while in bed.
What I am trying to say is that PIRs are optical devices and you can mask their field of vision. You might also enhance it with additonal lens.
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"When all think alike, no one is thinking very much.' - Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)
······································································ Warm regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan
Or how about a 'deadmans' switch....the person holds a switch closed while trying to fall asleep. When they fall asleep, they relax and release the switch. Of course, when you wake up again you have to be conscious enough to graph the switch to record that you're awake.
How many stages of sleep are there? 3 or 4?
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Steve
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
EEG is the most foolproof way of measuring the transition, but then you have to deal with electrodes and wires which you may entangle yourself in during the night.
Ive had the idea for a while of having an intelligent alarm clock which has the abillity of waking you within a pretermined range of time you set to wake you at a shallow point of sleep (waking you at the latest time specified if you sleep deeply throughout the interval). The benefit of the alarm clock is you feel more rested when woken and you are much less likely to hit the snooze button. I got stuck on how to design a passive EEG sensor net within a pillow, only to read a news story about 6 months ago that a team at MIT designed the exact same thing using standard EEG electrodes (My passive sensor is a better idea, but the inventive concept has been breeched, so I stopped thinking about it).
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·1+1=10
Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 1/19/2006 5:43:50 PM GMT
Somebody beat you to the punch.· I saw one of the snippets from the Consumer Electronics Show in 'Vegas on CNN with a wrist alarm clock that did just as you describe.· Set a range of time, and it rings at the lightest level of sleep (or the last minute...).
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John R.
8 + 8 = 10
As an aside, I thought of the idea while in grad school back in '98 when I struggled every morning to get to an 8:15 class aptly titled "Electronics and Biology: Using biology as inspiration to circuit design", one of my favorite classes taught by my graduate sponsor, it covered neural networks, coclear implants, retinal implants, neural bridges and other devices that either drew inspiration from biology or attempted to repair biological systems.
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·1+1=10
I figure if I use the PIR, I can simply set up some IR leds and focus all of them on my bed, and every night, I could just go to sleep as I normally would. Since there is nothing actually on the bed, nothing to operate, and no noticeable change (since light source is IR), my sleep should be unaffected by it (physically, psychologically).
Now that I consider it, it may be interesting to not only collect data on the last time there was movement before sleep, but also for every time I moved. I could assemble the data onto a graph, and figure out during which periods of time I moved the least. It would be interesting to compare the data for prolonged periods of sleep vs just a few hours, or sleeping with a good dream or a nightmare.
The concept was simple.· A pair of swimming goggles was painted black and had several holes drilled into each eyepiece.· As I recall there were about 15 holes in each one.· There were about 5 IR LEDs, 5 IR phototransistors and 5 standard Red LEDs.·
The idea was that the controller would detect the moevment of the eyes in REM sleep by reading the phototransistors and measuring the IR light picked up.· When sufficient changes were detected it would flash a pattern on the Red LEDs which would usually manifest itself as red lights in your dreams.· This way you would always know you were in a dream.
My problem was I always woke up with the goggles off and/or tangled up because I toss and turn all night!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
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Security against break-ins and robbery is an issue here in Africa so we’ve all been using PIRs extensively for years. They have got better as the technology has improved but they still have, in my opinion, major shortcomings. I feel that these devices are only suitable for random triggering when some “hot” object is moving in their “line of sight”.
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- Their range is variable. One time they’ll detect a person at 20 foot, the next they’ll miss one at 10.
- They need considerable time to recover and stabilize after each time they are triggered.
- The field of view for a particular unit changes. One time a 120Deg unit will detect at 120Deg, the next it’ll miss at 90Deg,
- They are very dependent on temperature. Also, uneven temperature due to say an air conditioner can give you problems.
- Direct sunlight disables them (not much problem here).
·You could do the same thing by measuring the change in the position of the body, possibly using a couple of pressure sensors under the mattress.
You could measure the change in the distance (position) of your head or body using ultra-sonic.
The ultimate would be to track your rate of movement with an accelerometer taped to your forehead but this means wires in the bed and I’m not sure I would want to do that.
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Random triggering apparently means that you feel they won't get it 100% of the time.
I am surprised about the changes in the field of view though.
Seems like Parallax got it right by having a quite simple unit rather than try to achieve more in range or detailed motion sensing.
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"When all think alike, no one is thinking very much.' - Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)
······································································ Warm regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan
It claims the ability to allow people to be conscious during their dreams(search "lucid dreaming"), which doesn't sound too far off. However, it also says it can let you read a whole book while you sleep (subconsciously) and communicate with the dead (in your dreams, based off your observations/experience of that person when they were alive). If it really could work miracles like that, it's a wonder more people don't use it.
Anyways, as for my project, I'll probably just get some PIRs to experiment with (after all, that's the best way to know if it will work or not). I think making the dream goggles myself could be, well, dangerous since I'm new to this stuff (an electrical circuit over your face for 8+ hrs a day, IR light, etc). Plus, it's not exactly what I'm looking for, but if anyone else wants to look further into this, be my guest! This can really open up a whole new world...
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
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·1+1=10
I assume there is...but that it's not linear!
As described through the stages of sleep, our breathing patterns change. This could mean a difference in pulse rate that someone could measure fairly easily compared to watching the whole body shift and such.
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Steve
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."