[ELECTRON] Underpass lighting project query

[Andrew Back]

Hi Roy,

On (14:54 26/11/10), Roy Mohan Shearer wrote:

> We are proposing a row of colour-changing spotlights downlighting the
> walls of the underpass, with sensors along the length of the underpass
> that will track individuals' movements through the underpass. The
> effect that we're going for is that as each individual enters the
> underpass, the spotlights increase in intensity and a colour is
> assigned to that person which accompanies them as they walk through.
> In addition to this there will be a constant level of white uplighting
> illuminating the ceiling of the underpass. The underpass is 16m long x
> 6m wide x 3 m high.

Just a thought, but couldn't this be a little disconcerting at night? It's
dark, late and as you hurry through an underpass alone a light stalks you...
 
> The main issues I predict for the designer are longevity (this being a
> permanent installation), and designing a system that can reliability
> differentiate between users. I have some experience with using picaxe
> and arduino for prototyping but am unsure as to whether this method
> could be made robust enough for a permanent installation on this
> scale, and if so who could do it for us. Does anyone here have any
> experience of builiding something on this scale, or can perhaps
> suggest a local individual or company whom we could contact?

I can't see why the Arduino wouldn't be reliable enough. I know of at least
one mass market product out there which was prototyped on an arduino and
then the production unit is basically a custom Arduino board. If it would
suffice I'd be tempted to use an Arduino Nano as they can easily be
socketed, making repairs and maintenance (e.g. firmware upgrade) easier.

If doing anything more than very simple processing and the Arduino won't cut
it you might want to look at something like the Pandaboard:

 http://pandaboard.org

It's cheap, small, fairly powerful, runs Linux and is perfect for embedded
applications. It also has some sort of camera interface. 

A good place to go for further advice might be the RS Components community
site, DesignSpark:

 http://designspark.com

They have an 'Ask an Engineer' section...

Cheers,

Andrew

-- 
Andrew Back
a at smokebelch.org