infrared hand censor controller

[phreak97]

im planning on building a dance maniax controller.. but need some help with the ir sensors..
i need to build sensors with a transmitter and reciever separated so the ir will reflect off your hand back to the reciever when you pass your hand over it.. i managed to make a led glow faintly this way.. but there was a constant glow too.. it just got brighter, no good for connecting to buttons

any circuits anyone might know?

[NFG]

Just FYI, "Censor" means to restrict access, "sensor" is the word you're looking for.

[hemphacker]

What's you're circuit look like so far? Could probably use a comparator. Hook what you have so far into the (+) input, a voltage divider into the (-) input, and the output for the 'button'.

[Guest]

actually i found an easy alternative, on a vcr mother board i found some little ir recievers which look like ordinary led's but black they work like ldr's but ir.. ill post more info later, g2g

[RandomMan]

A censor is also an incence burning vessle

[phreak97]

ok shutup about my typos, also im still looking for info

[alien.leet]

There are several ways of picking up the distance of a body from an Infra-Red sensor. It is a basically an infra-red theremin.

One of the most comon used in several musical instruments (roland mc-505, mc-909 and Airsynth) infact pulse the ir emmiter on and off. and the sensor is amplified and only read from, when the ir emmiter is triggered (since the speed of light is so fast)... this is to reduce problems with background light, which is a problem when the emmiter and sensor are on at the same time. Also you can get more power out of the emmiter by pulsing it.

I have experimented with both techniques, obviously the "always on" is the easiest to implement; with a simple amplifier (like a 358) filtered, you may need to use a sample and hold circuit, which goes in to a A to D convertor such as that on a Pic Microcontroller to send the value to the DC.

The second is to is a similar set up as the first but have your IR emmiter connected to the microcontroller through a transistor basically use the technique above. You would want to trigger it at least 10 times a second.

The hardest part is the software of the microcontroller, and whether the controller is syncronous (like a keyboard; only talks at certain times) or asyncronous (like a mouse; talks when it wants to but at a certain frequency).

Anyways hope this sheds a bit more *light* on the subject.

[phreak97]

ok.. 1. i have little/no experience with pics, 2. i really need a schematic with all parts labeled. but thanks anyway