Keep a Close Eye on Your Books With the ShelfChecker

Tired of friends borrowing your books with reckless abandon and never returning them? To combat this problem, Maker “Annelynn” came up with a system that closely guards eight books on a special shelf.

The DIY system, called ShelfChecker, uses light-dependent resistors (LDRs) to tell when a book has been removed from the shelf, indicating it via a NeoPixel strip controlled by an Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Beyond that, you’ll be able to highlight your favorites with the LEDs as well.

When approved to borrow a book, the ShelfChecker also has a barcode reader and a complete catalog system to keep track of everything with the help a MySQL database. Users can log into the system with the scanner, and take out or return books recorded in the database as instructed by an LCD display attached to the Pi.

Granted a library of this size may not require the Dewey Decimal system, but if you’d like to build something similar for your home, you can find more details on the project here. Perhaps this could even be adapted elsewhere… maybe for tracking tools at your local Makerspace?

[h/t: Raspberry Pi]