Challenge
Design and build a low-cost sensor that can detect movement through walls and display these observations in real time.
Primary Components
- Laptop computer
- Voltage-controlled oscillator
- Power amplifiers
- Coffee cans
This device builds on an existing project made on OpenCourseWare. It adds real-time monitoring capabilities to a microwave radar that can detect movement and positioning data through walls and other solid obstacles. Like all radars, it works by transmitting a microwave signal through one antenna, which is reflected against the object(s) being measured and back into a second antenna that receives the signal. From there, a program coded in Python measures the differences between the transmitted and reflected signals, then calculates the distance of the object – as well as the speed at which the object is moving – in relation to the antennae.