I somehow come to the conclusion that camera would be the best presence solution for us to detect if any/how many persons at home (most likely other systems to help as well, like motion and door sensors, wasp in the box etc).
Main problem is that we have some doors that are to be closed when we are at home, but open when we are away (so that the cat can use its toilet). Of course, turning off TV, heating and lights when we leave, and when we come back are extra benefits.
Solutions like phone detection are not reliable as we often forget phones at home or battery goes dead even though we are at home. Another solution is beacon for each jacket, and then counting how many beacons are missing, but again we sometimes leave home without jacket and even home keys, so beacons are not quite reliable.
We have a small hallway that leads to main hallway, main entrance, toilet and kids room at the same time, so motion sensor would detect traffic all the time.
But, a camera above entrance could work like this I think
Anyone got a suggestion on where to start, or some good alternatives, both commercials and diy?
Also, there is a wall facing main entrance doors, where I was thinking of having a smart mirror, there I could put a camera facing entrance doors, thus perhaps recognizing people coming in, and somehow leaving, not sure.
Don’t wanna brake your enthusiasm here but a solution to combine multiple sensors (such as motion/door sensors AND your phones) to make it more reliable is probably a safer bet. See also my presentation on this.
Then again if you get that camera thing to work I’d really like to hear about that - good luck!
(no I haven’t heard of anyone to do this).
I’ve been involved with a couple of projects that use this technology (for people counting) but with an managed service - not with OH.
There are cameras specifically designed for this purpose and they work extremely well in detecting people and being able to differentiate between pets and humans if needed.
The Netatmo Welcome/Security is supposed to do that and it has a binding to OH. This is what I have at home, however it’s far from perfect.
The motion detection is a bit slow and may miss someone crossing rapidly its field of view.
The face recognition is spotty. Sometime I have to literally plant myself in front of the camera to get it to acknowledge that I exist.
The worst is geo-fencing. It simply doesn’t work well on Android 8.1. I have to use IFTTT to switch my presence on or off.
The OH binding works through webhooks and is not very robust. That’s 100% the fault of Netatmo.
Still, it works and I can add snapshots to the OH website and they will be updated and displayed on the basic UI and the Android app. However due to 1-4 I can’t really recommend the product.
Thank you for your ideas, I will look more into this, hopefully get in touch with someone installing them commercially.
I am also “waiting” for xandem to be more popular or get down in price, as I am under impression that is doing good job of indoor tracking. Also waiting for http://www.originwireless.net/ that uses similar principle, but is way more accurate and practical as it uses only two devices. They say it could be available for consumers in 2019…
But since they have such a ground breaking technology, I am sure it will cost quite more. But if it is that good as they are announcing, able to detect even people breathing, I might consider it actually.
