Effective Ways To Detect People With Common Sensors

In this guide, we'll look at common methods of *detecting people,* some of the different *sensors* you can use to detect people in your next project, how they work, and when to use each one.

🔧🔨🧰 Hardware featured in this guide:

*PIR Sensor:*
*RCWL-0516 Microwave Radar:*
*SEN0395 mmWave Radar:*
*PiicoDev Ultrasonic Rangefinder:*
*PiicoDev Laser Distance Sensor:*
*Infrared Sensors:*
*Biometric Sensors:*
*Distance Sensors:*

0:00 Intro
0:52 PIR Sensors
2:11 Radar Sensors
2:49 RCWL-0516 Microwave Sensor
3:23 SEN0395 mmWave Sensor
4:57 Distance Sensors
5:56 PiicoDev Ultrasonic Rangefinder
6:25 PiicoDev Laser Distance Sensor
7:05 Conclusion

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[tomlynn]

I'd love to see these sensors applied to detecting when some crook tries to jump under your car to steal the catalytic converter. Hint, hint... video idea....

[DComputing]

would have been nice if you told us of the current drain of each for battery based projects.

[nitochentty]

Necesito ultrasónico para proteger tienda

[JNECKarthikBS]

I am aware of the sensors but i didn't knew about the drawbacks of the sensors that you have mentioned. it was informative and expecting more such videos...

[deplorablesecuritydevices]

What a great channel! It would be cool to see an outdoor version with rain and sunlight as factors.

[Snagga]

I did a project with the first green microwave sensor shown. Worked amazing for sensing people coming into a room or for what I needed it for... to sense people walking down a forest path.... one problem...as soon as the environment around was wet or damp (like rain or morning dew) it was completely blind. I assume what is happening is the microwave signal is being absorbed by the human or wet surface so both send back a shadow....so no movement detected when everything was a shadow. Worked fine in the garden when dry. One to watch out for. Otherwise awesome!

[demiurgiac]

Was not aware of the mm wave sensor. I have been trying to get other sensors mentioned here to work but there was always some kind of an issue or other. This mm wave sensor may be just what I want. Thank you! Off to order one.

[jimtekkit]

The problem I found with PIR sensors is that the standard ones are too cheap and unreliable, especially when range of over five metres is required. I upgraded to a Panasonic EKMC1603111 and despite having no adjustability it reliably detects movement up to 12 metres or more. Including vehicles, which is something the standard sensors couldn't do even on maximum sensitivity.

[derstaubsauger]

Thanks for the vid!
I’m quite the noob with this stuff, which sensor do you think would be good for a Halloween gag where a skeleton head follows a person walking by at a distance of 6 - 10 ft?

[andrepostoluck]

I misread this as “detect people with common sense” and got all excited what questions weed them out. Detecting motion is much simpler.

[Faizel_Ahmed]

I have a question what is the best sensor for human rescuing purpose in landslide area.

[laurenceandremagsino]

Great video! I have a question whats the best sensor you can recommend me that detects humans even in the dark and even if that sensor is moving because i want to put it in my security patrol robot project because we are having a hard time choosing a sensor that can detect effectively while it is in motion

[MrDe]

Awesome !!, Thank you so much, that was really informative 🌹

[charlesje]

Very helpful. I see all these components for sale but it's hard to tell from the datasheets how they perform in actual use.

[ramaanirudh]

Can i get the python code that you have used for the SEN0395 in raspberry pi

[olejorgensen]

Great comparison :-) Though i think the Radar sensor can be changed by altering the resistor or capacitor on the board.

[Elec-DIY]

If I recall correctly, you can change the sensitivity and duration of the pulse on the RCWL-0516 radar sensor by changing the values of the resistors on it. My only complaint about that sensor is it has a wide detection bubble around it, and since they can "see" through walls, you can't confine their detection area to a single room.

[yrkalaji]

Thank you for this video. Just an important correction regarding the mmWave sensor you mentioned. It can’t detect people while not moving. In fact, it’s so accurate it can detect the movement of your fingers! I doubt it can detect a still sleeping person.

[fabianoslack]

3:25 do the milimiter wave accept to work behind fiberglass wall of 10mm ?

[lohikarhu]

BTW, the dome on a PIR sensor is not often a Fresnel lens, except in longer range types ... The dome has multiple small convex lenses, pointing in several directions... these focus the IR in different places, and, as a target moves across the field of view, the "hot spot" moves across the two, or more, pyroelectric sensors, and the difference signal, gated by time (slow-enough changes do not trigger the output...high pass filter), generate a pulse output.