Which motion sensor can I use for an interactive installation, or which webcam is particularly suitable?

Beginners
1

Hello everyone,
I am planning an interactive installation for a photographer who wants to showcase his images. Using a projector, photos will be projected onto a wall, and as soon as someone walks by, the image at that specific spot should change. My question is: Which motion sensor can I use for this, or which webcam is particularly suitable? Do I need to consider anything specific to ensure compatibility with TouchDesigner?

2

Hi @Workinteractive,

perhaps the simplest sensor that comes to mind would be a range sensor for Arduino. As an example the VL53L0X has a 2meter range and in general Arduinos are lightweight, easy to use platforms that are simple to connect to TouchDesigner. Also there is not much processing power needed and no real latency to speak of…

There are all kinds of sensors that also cover longer ranges but I guess for a public installation the question would be what is the most practical. Surely you could use mediapipe, but will it detect too many people? Also other camera based solutions might just introduce extra latency and false positives…

cheers
Markus

3

Hi There,

If your are only looking to detect presence, a distance sensor as suggested is an option, but might be overkill for such a simple task to my opinion.
You could be using a PIR sensor (it’s like the one to switch lights when somebody gets within a certain zone) or an IR proximity sensor.
These are working quite well to detect “crossing”. here is an example: IR sensor

Next if you connect your sensor to a classic arduino, the most basic connection it through usb serial. And either you program your arduino to send whatever you want to TD, or you could use “Firmata” which allows you to read and control your arduino through serial quite easily.

I did use sensors a lot, and after having lots of struggles or limitation when working with conventional arduino for installations, I created recently a sensor platform to make it very easy to connect wirelessly sensors to audiovisual software.
It is not released yet, but the project will open source and available for pre-order soon, you can follow the progress here :wink: check it out Pipo Interfaces
insta: @pipo_interfaces