Hello!
I am very interested in using these as a method for advertising. Having these in my shop window would look very unique and certainly grab attention.
However, I face the issue of my shop window being approximately 2 feet away from the sidewalk. Is there any way to increase the range/sensitivity? Would replacing the IR sensor with a larger sensor do the trick?
Thank you for your time!
-Alex

My apologies for not clarifying before, but this post was in reference to the Octolively: http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/411-octo
Thank you again!

You may be able to increase the sensitivity by playing with the values of resistors R9-R15. However, the response function is pretty well tuned for the usual hardware, so it's not clear to me how well this will work. You might want to consider having a separate motion sensor to give an initial signal (of some sort) that would catch peoples attention, so that they can interact with them closer up.

I see tinted IR photodiode/resistors are used. Would replacing these with non-tinted photodiodes increase range in feedback, or would this work adversely?
Thank you again for your time!

Generally, adversely. The black lens blocks visible light, so that the sensors only detect the pulses emitted by the IR LEDs. You might consider altering the programming so that it responds to *any* changes (not just those related to reflection of the IR LEDs) but it would take some playing with it to get a good result.