I have a customer that is setting up a sensor system that they want to detect motion as well as track the direction of the motion. For the motion detection I have pointed them to Panasonic part number EKMB1305113K as they need a wide angle view.
For the tracking part, I’m not sure what type of sensor would be able to do this. Does anyone have any ideas of a good sensor that would be able to track left to right or right to left motion and possibly more than one object at a time?
Try using the Grideye by panasonic: AMG8833
What exactly are they tracking the motion of? Is it something that can be tracked through IR? Why kind of range or how close or far away?
They would like to have about 20’ of range. From what I gather it is for some sort of security system, somewhat like a security camera but it will track without the image. So they will be tracking people walking in and out of a store.
Travis,
They should be looking at a Time of Flight camera for this application. TOF will not only detect that you’re in the field of view but it will follow you and detect if you’re coming straight at the camera or moving L-R or R-L of the camera. They use these cameras for advertising that follows you or clothing that adjusts to your body so you can see it without trying anything on.
Here is one version from Bluetechnix GmbH:
Part Number 150-3001-1
If they use the A111 from Acconeer they can track from left to right. There is a demo application set up for it. They use radar, have about a 2 meter range.
Product Highlight Page
XC112
XR112
They have a new eval kit for it now as well with the XR112 and XC112 - Getting started video on the highlight page. Acconeer did a project where they moved pages on a power point with the 2 A111 sensors and it could track left to right. Different application but I know it can do this.
I am trying to find the video and files that did the left to right motion will post back when I have more. Had been given some files that we used for a sensor expo but wanted to speak with Acconeer about this before posting on the forum.
People counting is a really, really, really hard problem to solve reliably. Here’s a finished sensor manufacturer.
https://www.density.io/
An interesting take on the challenge of people tracking:
Another option to throw out there is the Melexis Infrared 32x24 pixel arrays, such as the MLX90640ESF-BAB-000-TU-ND and the MLX90640ESF-BAA-000-SP-ND. These are similar to the Panasonic GridEye product, except quite a bit higher resolution. If they want to go still higher resolution, they would need to look at something like the FLIR products, such as these. However, all these sensors can do is identify warmer-than-ambient pixels. Software must be written to do anything useful with that information.
As Ben points out, this is a very hard problem to solve. If they are trying to determine whether the number of people who have entered a room have all left, they will likely fail.
The radar available from Texas Instruments, mmWave, in this case automotive, is made in part to protect pedestrians from autonomous vehicles. It can track multiple targets and even follow their trajectory when those objects cross paths in the distance.
Automotive Version:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/texas-instruments/AWR1642BOOST/296-50206-ND/9487449
Industrial Automation Version:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/texas-instruments/IWR1642BOOST/296-49118-ND/7616445
Demonstration Video:
It’s overkill and wouldn’t be recommended if this is just one part in a 1 off application because of the learning curve, but if they’re going into the people counting business it would be extremely effective.
