Here is my instructable on how to construct a pretty simple (for some!) short range infrared rangefinder/range sensor. Infrared rangefinders are very useful in a number of projects. The majority of these come from obstacle detection (in robots) or generally detecting distances! The one shown here is only a simple rangefinder and will only really be able to measure about 6 or 7cm infront of the range finder. Luckily, most objects reflect infrared well enough to produce a reading (including a hand, paper and tin foil). I will be showing you how to use the infrared range finder with an Arduino and ways of linearizing the result.
Step 1: Theory
The theory behind an infrared rangefinder is that pulsed infrared is emitted from an IR led and then reflected back off an object into an IR receiver. As light adheres to the inverse square law which states that as distance from a source is increased, the intensity decreases by the square (Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/isql.html). Essentially, the light is emitted by the infrared LED, which then bounces off the object. In the first instance, the LED is the emitter and the reflective object is the observer. Once the light hits the object, it then bounces off and is reflected back to the IR receiver. The object is then acting as the source of light so the inverse square law takes effect twice. This has the problem that the maximum range of the rangefinder is quite short and to increase the range, higher power LED’s would be required.
Another problem that takes affect with light based rangefinders is how it can be affected by ambient light. I fix this in my rangefinder by modulating the emitting LED. Without this modulation, a simple light bulb connected to the mains can affect the result by superimposing 50Hz onto the actual signal.
My rangefinder works through having a modulated IR source at an ultrasonic frequency, being detected by a IR receiver (IR photodiode) which is then fed into a high pass filter, amplified and peak detected.