Couch Presence Detection

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Couch Presence Detection

reven

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#303194 24-Jan-2023 00:26

Managed to pickup two of these from jaycar in the weekend.

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/wireless-pressure-mat-to-suit-la5145-alarm-kit/p/LA5131?pos=1&queryId=98da226631d9621c27f0c5ab35e11b3f&sort=relevance&searchText=presure%20mat

Only 3 wires, de-soldered them from the circuit board that it came with, then hooked those 3 wires up to +5v, ground and a gpio pin on a raspberry pi. and presto, got a working couch pressure presence detector.

works really well under a couch cushion, no false positives. cat doesnt set it off.

no need for a any resistors, just 3 wires to a pi (had a pi as im trying room assistant aswell, otherwise I woul duse a esp32 or pico w or something).

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#3025966 24-Jan-2023 00:44

If Sheldon is seated alone - play Star Trek
If Penny is seated alone - play soppy drama
If Sheldon & Penny are seated - compromise and watch Star Trek?

Dulouz

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#3025981 24-Jan-2023 07:19

This is perfect for my AirBNB! I can charge for 'couch' time.

Amanon

MikeAqua

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#3025986 24-Jan-2023 07:44

What's the application you are using these for? (curious)

Mike

reven

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#3025993 24-Jan-2023 08:25

on the pi i just wrote a node app that monitors the pin, then sends a mqtt message which home assistant has a sensor for.

I use javascript daily so I prefer node to pyhton.

I may switch it to a wemos that I have coming and make it a dedicated thing, for that I would use esphome.

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#3025995 24-Jan-2023 08:31

For what practical application are you using these?

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

reven

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#3025996 24-Jan-2023 08:34

room presence detection. telling if a room is occupied. its another sensor for the room, i have motion, bluetooth and this.

so then

- if the room is occupied and the temp is above/below, turn on heat pump

- if the room is not occupied for 5minutes, and heatpump is on, turn off

- if room is occupied, the tv turns off, and is dark, turn on lights

- if room is not occupied and lights are on, turn lights off

kinda thing.

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johno1234

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#3026001 24-Jan-2023 08:44

I know it's somewhat irrational, but I find the idea of couch presence detection a little chilling. Is it just me?

Bung

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#3026003 24-Jan-2023 08:45

Back in about 1987 when I was working in Britannic House the managers had offices in the towers and the rest of us were in a cube farm. Our manager was never where he was supposed to be so we rigged up a contact mat under his chair wired back to a light. He soon realised that being visited within seconds of sitting down was not a coincidence and removed it.

reven

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#3026004 24-Jan-2023 08:46

just need a way to accurately detect room occupancy when there's no movement. this is a cheap reliable way of doing that

djtOtago

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#3026009 24-Jan-2023 09:02

So, you get up to make a cup of tea, maybe also move the washing from washing machine to drier, feed the cat, then as you walk back into the room with tea in hand, it is dark, and the TV is off again.

A room that presumes to know why I'm there, not there, and for how long I'm likely to be there or not, would drive me nuts in a short time. But maybe that's just me.

I also prefer to turn the lights on as I enter a room not after I sat down. But I guess it will be a fun project to have a play with.

I will be interesting to see if you can get the rules and logic to actually work with your day-to-day life.

Earbanean

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#3026011 24-Jan-2023 09:07

So if it's a party and you're all standing around chatting and drinking, then the lights and heat pump will turn off?

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#3026012 24-Jan-2023 09:08

Dulouz:

This is perfect for my AirBNB! I can charge for 'couch' time.

Or if you rent it for two people but there are two people in bed and one on the couch...

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djtOtago

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#3026013 24-Jan-2023 09:21

How are you going to check if there are two people in the bed? Camera???

reven

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#3026015 24-Jan-2023 09:28

bed, Ive got two better sensor on order, which gives a voltage value, so the more weight a higher value is reported. so can use that to determine whose on bed, or if mulitple are in bed.

All this stuff is locally controlled, nothing going out, then theyre just input sensors and you can configure rules based on this data. make it suit your life style.

me, i dont ever get up for 5minutes to make a cup of tea.... if I had a party over and it got hot, i would want heat pump on, but not if the ranchslider was open. then you can do if ranchslider is closed for 5minutes or more, room is occupied, room is hot, turn on heatpump.

personally, i like watching tv with no lights on, the lights are far away from me, i want lights on when i turn the tv off so i can see. my heatpump remote is a pita to use. so this works well

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3026017 24-Jan-2023 09:33

reven:

just need a way to accurately detect room occupancy when there's no movement. this is a cheap reliable way of doing that

I got myself one of these to play with https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004351593073.html

My main reason for going down this route is it will simply output to a pin when human presence detected, and you can programme the sensitivity based on ranges. Unfortunately, while the no motion sensing seems to work, it doesn't trigger the output like motion does, so you need a device that can interpret the serial data.

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