You would possibly assume that you’ve the world’s worst neighbors, however you’ve bought nothing on Roni Bandini. Not way back, Bandini created a tool referred to as the Reggaeton Be Gone that listened for a selected sort of music, then jammed the close by Bluetooth speaker of a neighbor that insisted on blasting reggaeton music means too early within the morning. So, did that resolve all of his points with neighbors? Hardly. Bandini says that the place he lives in Buenos Aires, drunks and thieves are recognized to incessantly come proper as much as individuals’s doorsteps and make themselves at residence.
With one other downside to unravel within the neighborhood, Bandini as soon as once more constructed a tool that may be a bit over-engineered and barely passive-aggressive, but additionally very humorous (a minimum of if you’re not on the receiving finish), to deal with it. Named Step Guard, this technique displays one’s doorstep and watches for the presence of individuals. If some unwelcome guests are hanging round, Step Guard will blare an annoying horn sound or a recorded message warning them to depart the entryway.
The outside unit (📷: Roni Bandini)
After beginning out with some subtle options for individual detection involving mmWave radar sensors and cameras, Bandini in the end settled on a lower-tech answer as a result of points with false positives and restricted wi-fi connectivity that stored arising. The ultimate answer made use of a DFRobot Beetle ESP32C3 growth board with an ultrasonic distance sensor that was positioned above the doorstep. This easier setup despatched Bandini a message, and likewise communicated with one other computing unit that was positioned indoors, by way of Telegram each time an individual was detected.
The indoor unit was constructed round a UNIHIKER single board laptop with a built-in touchscreen show. Powered by a customized Python utility, this system waits for a sign from Telegram, then performs audio by means of a small USB sound board related to a 3 watt amplifier. All the actions taken by Step Guard are additionally logged by this unit.
To complete off the construct, the outside unit was put in a water-resistant case, whereas the indoor unit was fitted right into a customized 3D-printed case designed with Autodesk Fusion. Buttons on the indoor system additionally enable the proprietor to alter the kind of sound that the system performs, or mute it fully if they’re feeling like having some firm.
The indoor unit (📷: Roni Bandini)
Since constructing Step Guard, Bandini has discovered a gentle stream of prepared (however unaware), err…, beta testers. The system is having the specified impact. As you would possibly anticipate, individuals do not likely like hanging out with a loud alarm blasting of their ears. After seeing this venture in motion, I can not assist however marvel if Step Guard would work on door-to-door salespeople.
Within the project write-up, Bandini discusses the setup of the {hardware} and has circuit diagrams to assist others get their very own Step Guard off the bottom. Supply code can be obtainable to assist velocity up the construct course of.
