Motion Sensors

Sensors Distance
1

Hi all.

I am working on a project with my STEAM students for the upcoming holiday of Hannukah. The goal is that when someone motions their hand over an LED “candle” the “flame” will light up. In order for this to work, I need motion sensors that do not detect a long range of motion - only a couple of inches.

I wanted to use the Sparkfun line-follower motion sensor but it seems it only detects motion within a couple of milimeters. Any suggestions for a sensor that would sense motion within a couple of inches?

2

Hi rfield,

For this project, you may want to take a look at these two Distance and Gesture Sensors:

  • - [[ZX Distance and Gesture Sensor](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13162)
  • - [[SparkFun RGB and Gesture Sensor](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12787)
    • [/list]

    Both of those work well to detect gestures within a few inches if you wanted to have your students “wave” the candles on. If you want to learn more about both of these sensors, please read through their Hookup Guides linked on their resepective product pages. We have a host of other distance sensors in the [Distance Sensor Category if you want to take a look.

    I hope this helps you find the right sensor for this project. If you have any follow-up questions about these or other SparkFun products you want to use in this project, let us know and we would be happy to help as much as we can.](Distance - SparkFun Electronics)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12787)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13162)