Most people are in the habit of jiggling their mouse or tapping their keyboard when they want to wake their monitor. This clever electronics hack adds a sensor to your computer for motion-based monitor activation.

At the DIY and electronics blog Radio Etcetera they tackled an interesting project and shared the build guide. Their local volunteer fire department needed a monitor on for quick information checks but they didn’t need it on all the time and they didn’t want to have to walk over and activate the monitor when they needed it. The solution involved hacking a simple infrared security sensor and wiring it via USB to send a mouse command when motion is detected in the room. Fire fighter walks in, monitor turns on and displays information; fire fighter leaves and the monitor goes back to sleep.

Hit up the link below to see additional photos, schematics, and the complete build guide.

Motion Activated PC Monitor [Radio Etcetera via Hack A Day]