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smart motion sensor

Kinect-assisted burglar alarm motion detector - distinguish between cats and people
 
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Most domestic alarm systems which have an indoors motion detector have an option to turn off the motion detection if you want to exit the house but leave an animal inside.

A smarter motion detector that used a Kinect-style body detector to distinguish between animals and humans would reduce the risk of turning off part of your alarm system.

(Yes, I see the possibilities for errors and clearly some tweaking of threshholds, size detection etc would be needed. You wouldn't want a burglar to evade detection by, say, wearing a burlap sack over his torso and legs to fool the body detection algorithm.)

gtoal, Apr 04 2012

See annos Smartphone_20Awareness_20System
for discussion of smart motion detectors [Alterother, Apr 04 2012]

[link]






       These are baked, but not widely and not in the form you describe. [8th] and I were arguing about it a few weeks ago <linky>. There is a super-secret British see-through walls motion detector that is currently being tested in Afghanistan by the SAS and their chums. Supposedly, it can tell the difference between animals and people. I have only a general description of it, based on an article in Jane's and some educated guesswork, but perhaps the Borg will drop by and enlighten us further.   

       Meanwhile, I have a driveway motion sensor that can tell the difference between a car and a moose.
Alterother, Apr 04 2012
  

       Smart motion sensors for burglar alarms already exist. Do a search for "Pet Immune" motion detectors. They can require significant tweaking to be tuned in.   

       However, anything that will pass a large dog will pass a small, crawling human, so I think there is a limit on the possible functionality here.
MechE, Apr 04 2012
  

       #MechE: I did already know that standard motion detectors can be tweaked to reject objects below a threshhold size (especially the ones using cameras rather than ultrasonic sonar) but the difference here is that the Kinect actually detects the human body shape, and ought to (no promises, mind you) be able to distinguish between a crawling human and a similar sized dog.   

       I would imagine though that dressing up in a pantomime horse costume would throw it for a loop :-) (probably best to rely on the large size in that instance)
gtoal, Apr 05 2012
  

       "The government has today announced that wearing a pantomime horse costume will be treated as 'attempt to burgle' and owning of said disguise as 'possession of burglaring implements' unless current membership in a theater production company can be proven."
FlyingToaster, Apr 05 2012
  
      
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