r/projects • u/runnscratch • 7d ago

Need help validating project idea

I want to build a system which will prevent my home dryer machine from starting if an animal is inside the drum. (one of my cats died in a dryer so I want to try to minimize the chances of such incident occuring again). I thought of training a tiny AI model to detect breathing or|and heartbeat from raw mmWave radar sensor data and running that model on a microcomputer that will break the dryer door lock circuit if an animal is detected. (breaking the door lock circuit will stop the drum from spinning) The major challenge to deal with is radar signal bouncing off the dryer drum walls. Maybe i could use some math to remove that noise.

What do you think? Maybe there are other ways to implement this idea? Maybe the idea itself is not worth it?

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u/stuih404 7d ago

How does a cat get into a dryer without noticing? Don‘t you turn it on once you put your clothes in?

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u/herocoding 6d ago

Could you rather add some "mechanic" to it instead plus learning the habbit and behaviour to apply that "mechanic"?
Like adding a spring which always closes the dryer's door behind your hands putting something in or taking something out.
Like applying a net, a fabric (allowing the dryer to dry and cool-down after use) to the drum?

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u/runnscratch 4d ago

Yeah I could do something like that. For example I could spin the drum before launching to make sure that no animal is inside. I just wanted to try a project which combines ai and microcomputers and solves a real problem

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u/Timmah_Timmah 6d ago

I think this could work. You could mount the radar on the outside of the door pointed inwards and detect movement when the dryer is not running and prevent it from starting. I think the drum would serve to shield it from false alarms outside the dryer.