A visual assistant for preventing car bumper collisions
This setup relies on creating a setpoint for a vehicle. The application continually checks for obstructing objects, e.g., a car bumper and should show a solid green color at reduced brightness when in idle mode. As a vehicle enters the sensor's domain (within an advertised 400cm or 13 ft), the light will emit a bright green to grab the driver's attention. As the vehicle moves towards the sensor, individual pixels will illuminate to yellow indicating that the distances is decreasing and approaching the setpoint. When the setpoint threshold is reached, all yellow pixels will turn to red and will begin to flash as a secondary warning.
- Arduino platform (Microduino Core+ used here)
- HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor
- Momentary push-button
- Adafruit Neopixel strip (8 pixel bar used)
Two primary modes exist: Normal and Train. The Train mode allows a setpoint to be set automatically when the button is released. To enter Train mode, hold down the button. Typical operation, in Normal mode does not require any user interaction.
