Presence detection can make your Home Assistant automations feel much smarter.Instead of relying on basic motion sensors, you can track your location to a specific room and even determine exactly where in the room you are.These weekend projects tackle presence detection in different ways.
Related The weirdest smart home sensor you never knew you needed Don't sleep on these useful sensors.Posts 10 By Adam Davidson Room-level presence detection with Bermuda Use Bluetooth for a more accurate location Knowing when someone is at home is a very useful thing in Home Assistant.You can use this information in automations to do things such as turn off your lights, heating, and smart plugs when no one is home, and turn them back on again when someone returns.
It can be even more useful to know not just whether someone is in your home, but exactly where in your home they are.You can then use this information for more granular automations, such as turning on the lights or heating in a specific room.You can even add personalization, such as playing different playlists depending on which person is detected in the room.
A popular method of room-level presence detection is using the Bermuda custom component.This lets you track the location of any Bluetooth device (such as your phone or smartwatch) using ESP32 devices in each room that act as Bluetooth proxies.You assign each proxy an area in Home Assistant (such as your living room), and Bermuda uses the signal strength measured by each proxy to determine which room you're in.
Some devices, such as iPhones and Apple Watches, constantly change their MAC addresses to reduce tracking.You can use the Private BLE Device integration to get around this problem by matching the random MAC addresses to a specific device using its Identity Resolving Key (IRK).Room-level presence detection unlocks a lot of possibilities.
You can have your music follow you around your home as you move from room to room or have your lighting do the same, like you're walking through the corridors from .You also don't have to worry about the lights turning off when you're in the shower because the motion sensor can't detect your movement.Track your location in a room with mmWave sensors Create zones within zones While Bermuda is accurate enough to track which room you're in, it can't track exactly where you are within that room to any degree of accuracy.
If you want a lamp to turn on when you sit in a specific chair, for example, then Bermuda isn't accurate enough to do this.Some presence sensors are, however.Using mmWave presence sensors, such as the Everything Presence Lite and Apollo MTR-1, you can determine presence with an accuracy of just a few centimeters.
You can define specific zones within a room and detect not only whether someone is within that zone, but even how many people are in it.This can be incredibly useful.I have an automation that uses an Everything Presence Lite to track when I'm sitting in my office chair.
If my presence is detected in the "chair" zone for more than 30 minutes, my smart speaker nags me to get out of my seat and walk around for a while.I use another presence sensor in the living room that monitors a "seating" zone.It counts the number of people detected in that zone when the TV is on in the evening.
If the count drops, the TV will automatically pause, meaning that if one of us gets up to grab a drink or go to the bathroom, the TV will stop playing and automatically start again when we sit back down.With some mmWave sensors, you can manage the zones directly within Home Assistant and create multiple zones for a single sensor.You can then use the presence detection for each individual zone as if it were its own sensor.
Everything Presence Lite Compatibility ESP Home Weight 40g Featuring multi-target tracking, support for zones, light level sensing, Bluetooth proxy and support for multiple different mmWave sensors, the Lite offers next level features for a more pocket-friendly point.Colors White Connectivity Bluetooth, Wi-Fi $39 at Everything Smart Technology Expand Collapse Smarter occupancy by combining sensors Unleash the power of Bayesian probability Bermuda BLE tracking and mmWave sensors can be very accurate, but they're not flawless.Both can sometimes lose track of you for a moment or two.
That's why for the best results, you shouldn't rely on a single source of truth.Subscribe to the newsletter for smarter presence detection Want hands-on presence detection guides? Subscribing to the newsletter unlocks detailed how-tos, component comparisons, setup tips for Bermuda, mmWave, and Bayesian combos, and practical automations you can build and adapt.Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
You can unsubscribe anytime.This is where a Bayesian sensor can help.A Bayesian sensor can combine a number of different observations and use them to calculate the probability that a person is in a specific room.
For example, you could use information such as the time of day, whether the living room TV is on or off, whether motion has been detected, and whether presence is detected to produce an overall probability that you're in the living room.Setting up a Bayesian sensor involves providing a number of probabilities, such as the probability that you're in the living room at any point in time, the probability that the motion sensor is triggered even if you're not in the room, the probability that the TV is on if you're not in the room, and so on.It can be fairly complex to set up and may take some tweaking to get it to work how you want.
If you want to make things a little easier, check out the Area Occupancy Detection custom component.It uses Bayesian probability but includes a helpful configuration wizard that walks you through the process of adding areas and sensors and tweaking the detection behavior.Presence makes your smart home smarter Each of these projects tackles a different part of the same problem.
Bermuda can tell you who is where, but it lacks pinpoint accuracy.An mmWave sensor gives more accuracy, but can't tell one person from another.A Bayesian sensor can combine both methods along with other signals from your smart home to make presence detection more accurate.
If you've got the time, why not try them all out this weekend?
Read More
