IR sensor question

[vla7]

I would like to attach a camera to a servo and have the the servo rotate to allow the camera to follow an object in the room as the object moves.  The object would need to be about 20-30 feet away.  What is the best way to go about this?  I was thinking of attathing an IR emitter to the object and have several detectors near the servo so that the servo will rotate to an angle depending on which detector "sees" the ir signal.  Is it possible to have a stand alone LED sending a signal and willl they reach 30 ft?  If there is a better way to do this please let me know.

[sdavis6736]

There is a great computer vision tutorial the Society Of Robots puts out.  Check it out.  One part of the tutorial talks about middle mass blob detection.  This might give you some ideas and a direction.

http://www.societyofrobots.com/programming_computer_vision_tutorial_pt3.shtml#middle_mass

[airman00]

must it be IR light?

simply covering the object in red or some other color could make your life easier. Then do middle blob detection like sdavis6736 said.

Btw this thing is gonna be microcontroller controlled or PC controlled?