I'm working on building a smart thermostat. It would be really nice if it would know if there's anyone home or not.
PIR sensors sound unfeasible due to the number of rooms and lack of movement during sleep.
Smartphone BLE is a better idea in theory but I didn't find a way to turn on BLE discoverability in Android permanently.
Does anyone have better ideas on how to achieve this? Or maybe someone knows how to turn BLE discoverability on permanently in Android 10?
PIR should be workable.
work out the simplicity of an onion.
any detection in the outer layer means movement
any detection in an inner layer means presense.
inner lay movement followed by outer layer movement is a potential departure
does not work if one person leaves while others are sleeping.
PIR near exits and PIR closer to the major movement areas would give that two layer value.
Humans breath and CO2 is elevated in the presence of humans. really only applies to areas where humans would be stationary for any length of time.
allow for forgetting your cell phone at work or at home.
I do believe there are other ways to detect the presence of a cell phone.
At the entrance You can set up a check in/check out point. One button for entering the premises, one button for leaving. Just keep count of the sums of button pressings.
FaithRaven:
PIR sensors sound unfeasible due to the number of rooms and lack of movement during sleep.
If you want to know for definite I think you need one in every room.
If there was someone in the house at bedtime it is unlikely that the lack of movement means they have left the house.
...R
FaithRaven:
Smartphone BLE is a better idea in theory but I didn't find a way to turn on BLE discoverability in Android permanently.Does anyone have better ideas on how to achieve this? Or maybe someone knows how to turn BLE discoverability on permanently in Android 10?
Depending on detecting 'Smartphones' is surely a non starter, in theory.
So you need a 'Smartphone' in the first place, but believe it or not there are still a few people in the World who dont have them or want to buy one just to stay warm in thier own house.
Then of course the 'Smartphone' battery can go flat if you dont religously plug it in each night to charge, so you propose punishing the house occupants for this by turning off the heating.
One qeustion, four answers. I wonder what OP will pick up.
"It would be really nice if it would know if there's anyone home or not."
Use the forum Google search function in the upper right of this page to search for "occupancy detection" and similar key words. You will probably find many previous project discussions and code using these devices.
Thank you all for your replies. It looks like my query is not an easy one to answer.
srnet:
Depending on detecting 'Smartphones' is surely a non starter, in theory.So you need a 'Smartphone' in the first place, but believe it or not there are still a few people in the World who dont have them or want to buy one just to stay warm in thier own house.
Then of course the 'Smartphone' battery can go flat if you dont religously plug it in each night to charge, so you propose punishing the house occupants for this by turning off the heating.
I'm not trying to take over the world with my solution. My goal is to come up with something that works for my household. If all our smartphone's batteries go flat, I'm OK with freezing for a night because of it.
zoomkat:
"It would be really nice if it would know if there's anyone home or not."Use the forum Google search function in the upper right of this page to search for "occupancy detection" and similar key words. You will probably find many previous project discussions and code using these devices.
I've done that and I found a lot of similar questions but no (feasible) solutions.
dave-in-nj:
PIR should be workable.work out the simplicity of an onion.
any detection in the outer layer means movement
any detection in an inner layer means presense.inner lay movement followed by outer layer movement is a potential departure
does not work if one person leaves while others are sleeping.PIR near exits and PIR closer to the major movement areas would give that two layer value.
Humans breath and CO2 is elevated in the presence of humans. really only applies to areas where humans would be stationary for any length of time.
allow for forgetting your cell phone at work or at home.
I do believe there are other ways to detect the presence of a cell phone.
While it would be really fun to play with all those sensors, I don't think that it would be much fun to have them sitting all around the house permanently.
More and more, I think that my solution (if I manage to come up with any) needs to revolve around the smartphone or BLE beacons.
Anyone has any funky ideas about detecting smartphone presence? (without the Google way - permanent location tracking)
Add a double beam light fence, at the door, that can detect whether a person enters or leaves the place and register it. I hope Your place have a limited amount of entrances.
"I've done that and I found a lot of similar questions but no (feasible) solutions."
You should take a hint from that. If it is easy/feasible, everybody would already be doing it. But you can always be the first.
If you installed a PIR sensor on a oscillating base, a stationary heat source would keep triggering it.
For pre-sense, check out the movie Minority Report...
You may get some additional ideas.
FaithRaven:
It would be really nice if it would know if there's anyone home or not.
If your home has a "key bowl" at the door, you could infer the presence of at least one resident by the mass of the bowl being greater than its tare.
(But then of course if someone goes out with someone else and leaves their keys in the bowl....)
How about getting your local vet to chip everyone and fit scanners in the doorframes?
But more seriously, what about those things hotel rooms have, where you have to stick your keycard in the slot to get power?
Railroader's idea is very good. a sensor on each end of a doorway could tell if someone is comming or going.
by order they where triggered. it would be easy enough to keep a head count in bedrooms.
another idea if detecting sleeping people is the problem. why not weight sensors under the matresses?
if you are looking to use cellphones. this dilemia could be solved with just GPS!!! Dont people keep there phones with them? if the phone dies. you could just assume it hasn't moved.
even simpler... wouldnt it be easier to detect vehicles at the house rather than people?
it would be easy as having small RF transmitters in your cars.
taterking:
another idea if detecting sleeping people is the problem. why not weight sensors under the matresses?
That could get very interesting.
...R
Hi,
Google
arduino microwave body detector
Tom.. 