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I have a problem with my neighbor's cats deciding to pee and poop in my front yard. I decided to go with a few of these: https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-KIT19001-SSScat/dp/B000RIA95G .

They worked reasonably well, but the cats have learned that if they run quickly past one, it won't hiss. So now I'm thinking of modifying them so they use an IR beam, and a beam interruption would trigger the hiss.

The eternal battle goes on.

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since the sprayers have a configurable spray width I think you could get pretty far with some sort of wide-angle sensor (a few ultrasonic range finders, or maybe a Kinect?) placed at one long-edge end of the lawn and use that to trigger sprayers laid out perpendicular to the camera.

You can leave that outdoors? Would it keep birds away from blueberries?

I've left it outdoors, and it's still working. I did cover the top (where the batteries are) with some plastic to prevent water from going in.

It should work against birds, as long as the IR detector can sense a change. The bird must stay in one place for a couple of seconds at least.

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