Sensors system design for discrimination between humans and animals

摘要

The applicability areas for sensor networks vary from industrial automation, environmental observation to medical domain . As the quality of life has improved, the life expectancy also increased during the last years, fact that leads to an aging of the population. It is well known that elderly people need special treatment and resources due to their decreasing capacity of self-caring. It is, thus, desirable to increase the length of independent living for this category without depriving them from the known life environment and personal habits. Another possible application is the one of child care and monitoring in closed precincts. This paper illustrates the implementation steps of a sensor network used for discriminating between the presence of a human being and of an animal that may be useful in case of medical emergency situations. The design takes into account the main challenges that may occur such as achievement of not accurate results due to the fact that children are moving much more than an adult. The basic structure is designed using Arduino platform, sensors for distance measurements, for height determination as well as DHT22 temperature sensor and sensors for motion detection and takes into account cases of walking and standing subjects. Several configurations have been tested in order to improve the relative error for discrimination between children and pet entering a room.