Erica Kane has developed an Open Source DIY Automated LED Stair Lighting system. It uses an Arduino Pro Mini as the brain and a M5451 LED Display Driver to power the LEDs. She used PING sensors to detect when someone enters the stairwell. Currently the lights just turn on one at a time but that is all customizable by changing a bit of Arduino code.
If you are looking for a stair lighting system kit please have a look at the one that I created, I think it was the first automatic LED stair lighting system out there. There is also the new Reactive Lighting stair lighting system which has a ton of features and lighting options to enhance any stairwell.
I find it interesting how many ways you can detect a person (or animal) entering the stairwell, Erica uses ultrasound to do it, my first system stair lighting system used a laser beam, the stair lighting kit that we sell uses an IR beam and the Reactive Lighting system uses a PIR motion sensor. Other than under carpet pressure sensors I am having a hard time thinking of other detection methods but I am sure there will be a new one in a few months. 🙂
Via: Make