pi-motion-lite

A Simple Raspberry Pi Computer Motion Detection Python Script

Introduction

This is a raspberry pi computer minimal motion detection python script for use in a users project. The script requires the picamera python module to be installed. It uses piRGBArray data streams to detect motion (pixel differences). This is a minimal code implementation for use in a users project.

Hardware

Raspberry Pi computer pi zero, A, A+, B, B+, pi3, compute module Etc. Raspberry Pi camera module

additional support hardware eg SD card, PowerSupply, cables, etc. I will not list the details for setup since you can google for this information check out http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ for one source of information.

This assumes you have a raspbian image installed and operational with the picamera module installed and operational per raspi-config setup

Software

This code is available on github at https://www.github.com/pageauc/pi-motion-lite

To setup pi-motion-lite on your raspberry pi perform the following from a logged in putty ssh or pi desktop terminal session.

sudo apt-get install python-picamera
sudo apt-get install python3-picamera  # if running under python3
cd ~
mkdir pi-motion-lite
cd pi-motion-lite
wget https://raw.github.com/pageauc/pi-motion-lite/master/pi-motion-lite.py
chmod +x pi-motion-lite.py

To execute

./pi-motion-lite.py

or

python pi-motion-lite.py

Use IDLE, nano or any other text editor to modify code for your project needs. adjust threshold and sensitivity to suit conditions.

threshold - How Much a pixel needs to change before it is counted. Normal value would be 10 but can be between 1 and 254 254 would be full black to white change. sensitivity - How Many pixels need to change before motion detected. Higher value is less sensitive. default=200 for 128x80 stream max value would be 10240 px

Important

If you are using a previous Picamera python module and images are black or have problems with an older raspbian install, then update Raspberry PI firmware per commands below. From a (putty) ssh login or monitor terminal execute the following commands to upgrade to latest firmware. This should resolve any picamera issues.

# Update Raspbian
sudo apt-get update
# Update RPI firmware
sudo rpi-update
# Hard boot to update firmware
sudo shutdown -h now

Note the checkForMotion function uses the green (1) portion of the RGB stream for pixel diff comparison. You might want to change the pixColor variable to Red(0) or Blue(2) in the checkForMotion function.

Let me know what type of projects you implement with this.

I also have pi-timolo python program on my github repository here

https://github.com/pageauc/pi-timolo

pi-timolo implements timelapse, motion detection and low light including auto detect of day, night, twilight changes without the need for a clock or time calculation. There are also various previous versions that use raspistill rather than picamera python module

Claude Pageau email: pageauc@gmail.com