I am looking for a sensor that would detect if the car has approached a parking spot since I would like to install this to see if I have a free spot in my front house parking.
Should I look for something similar like 'geomagnetic sensor/proximity sensors' ?
Or perhaps stick with video detection, that detects a car?
Possibly. A laser- or ultrasonic range finder (horizontally aimed at the parking spot) could be another.
And not to forget the commonly used detection loop used with traffic lights (if you can burry a proximity sensor in the parking spot you should also be able to burry a few loops of wire).
Ofcourse, none of those methods will do well against motor cycles ...
Video detection mostly doesn't do well with static images. You could "hide" a full army in plain sight of them, as long as they move slow enough. Also think about how changes of the light condition - like a cloud passing in front of the sun - could throw off a diff check.
You know, now I think of it : aiming snapshot camera at the parking spot and sending you the image - even in just 320x200x256 grayshades and taking a minute or so to retrieve - would probably work best. Regardles of the object and weather conditions.
or you could simply accept the fact that you have no right to the spot outside your house & accept the fact that if someone else has it then you simply have to park elsewhere or get a driveway.
My street has exactly the same issue & is regularly used by commuters to avoid paying for parking, it is just something that I have to live with.
--
A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
-- H.H. Munro, "Saki"
Let's try it in code to see if you can compile this
def parkathome(): if ( spacedetector() == True) : print ("Parking outside home is available\n") return True else: print ("Bummer, no free space at home. Park somewhere else!\n") return False
Me, I wouldn't check to see if there is a space. I'd get some inflatable bollards and blow them up when I leave. That way I am guaranteed a space when I return.
To me his question seems to show the exact opposite. He's not going to come home and ram the car from "his" parking spot, he just wants to know if its occupied so he has ample time to consider other options.
By the way, happy newyear (or whatever political correct phrase you prefer). And don't let the positive spirits of these festive days get you down. Just assume the worst. :-)
Just ask yourself, how many people would look at an *inflatable* bollard and think it was the same thing as a real one ? And thats apart from those things just falling over and roling away (or buckling if they would have a weighted base) by the gushes of wind generated by every passing car.
FYI, that was a JOKE. At least, that is what it sounded to me.
And mm0fmf ? A public utilities tent works *much* better. Just be sure you dump some sand around it. Just a few buckets worth should be enough. Its the appearance that does it, not the ammount. Not even the police would than take a second look. And if you got one of those small electrical city cars you could probably put them inside, so its protected against the rain, sun and so on. :-) Also, as long as you're at work the kids can use it to play house in ! Many pros, not a single con. Well, apart from the con of keeping that spot occupied ofcourse. :-p
I reckon a bit of image recognition would be interesting. If it's a space outside your own house, you could put the camera in an upstairs window looking down at the road, mark an area in its image memory that corresponds to your parking space so that the system can work out the approx. length of the free space available, if any. It can bung the results on a webpage and you can have a look at that as you approach to see if your own space is available.
Also worth adding some more image recognition to the system so it can tell you if there's some gammon faced bod who can't read and has had a triple sense of humour bypass hanging about looking for the inflatable bollards.
He already said so: to see if its occupied or not.
Really ? Please do explain. Whats going on in your mind that you want to have answers too ? Some assumed nefarious goal perhaps ?
Lolz. He would know that you would like to know that .... how exactly ? By reading your mind perhaps ? Don't you think it would be a good idea to *ask* ?
Personally I gave a few suggestions went over a rather wide cost and/or complexity range, and with little consideration to if the parking spot is public, or maybe even private land. Why ? Because they are
*possibilities*, and taken from the top of my head. All of them took pretty-much the same effort.
... and I didn't even mention removing the stones/tarmac of the parking spot and replace it with a pressure/weighing plate. :-)
In that case I would rather put a cheap reflector on/in the road and aim a lightbeam at it. As long as the beam comes back the spot is free. Add a bit of leeway to account from strange objects (pedestrians?) passing thru the beam and it should work nicely.
... apart from autumn and or winter debri (leaves, snow) ofcourse. Than again, that would most likely also pose a problem for image recognision.
On a sunny day (Mon, 31 Dec 2018 11:01:04 +0100) it happened "R.Wieser" wrote in :
Maybe something like this:
formatting link
A HFS-DC06-5-8GHz-Microwave-Radar-Sensor-Module-DC-5V-ISM-Waveband-Sensing-12m Only 5$ inclusive shipping
Range 12 meters, 360 degrees, maybe add some parabolic antenna to narrow the angle.
ebay is full of things like that.
It is not a camera, so that cannot be an objection. Anyways I have 5 security cams monitoring house and environment, and those have already payed for themselves, bad guy caught in the act.
Doing image processing is possible, but indeed with sun position changes, weather, frost, reflections from pools of water, etc etc that maybe be more difficult. I once wrote some soft to read a digital alarm clock via a webcam:
formatting link
Monitoring a fixed pattern (ground) for presence should not be so easy, weather / snow / day / night permitting.
The biggest problem I see is you obviously cannot mount any sensors outside the boundary's of your own property. a simple distance sensor may be enough if you can get the right range, but you would need to filter temporary obstructions such as pedestrians walking in front etc.
if you can use a camera then security cam software cam make areas of interest that alert when there is a change. again there is a plausibility of false +ve's due to pedestrians etc but a a fun project that may not be too significant
--
"One o'clock pee em! Hello, Insert Name Here!"
-- The Dis-organizer
Luckily most of the serious suggestions did not need that, like my the laser- or ultrasonic range finder one.
But to mention another limitation : You cannot just point a permanent camera at a public spot. Not even from within the confines of your own house, let alone your own property. Its not allowed.
Than again, its possible that even pointing a rangefinder at the parking spot could afoul of *some* law ...
On the other hand, if what is done is unobtrusive (even a few loops of wire dug into the parking spot with the connecting wire neatly below the pavement) or innocuous (like the reflector I spoke of) there is noone to know, and thus noone to complain.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.