Walabot: The future of motion, presence sensors?

Depending on the actual API, I can see. 1 or 2 on each level of the house knowing which room has activity in it & running automation according.

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Has anyone connected a walabot motion sensor to Smart things via Rasberry Pi & IFTTT?

It’s important to understand that the walabot is not a motion sensor. It’s an area mapper. If the objects or people are moving around, it loses track of them and thinks they are new objects. It tracks people by getting precise measurements of the person (the person has to stand still at a distance of about 2 feet until the measurements are complete) and then the next time it takes a map it looks to see if there is an object that matches the same measurements. But it’s pretty easy to fool it. Or confuse it. Depending on how you look at it. Look at the issues the following developer had when he tried to implement a “follow me“ mode.

Think of the technology you need to keep a robot vacuum from running into things. That’s The use case for the walabot, except it can also see through walls for about 10 m.

Probably most useful for construction projects, some kinds of search and rescue, and drone navigation where you’re willing to have the drone just stay still and map an area for a few minutes before entering it.

But now its number one commercial use is basically as a fancy stud finder for construction projects:

Here you can see some of the projects people have done with it:

https://www.hackster.io/walabot/projects

Noticed that the one for fall detection says it can identify five stationary people and then determine if one has fallen.

But if the people are all walking around, it’s going to think there are 15 or 20 of them and not know who it was who fell.

I’m sure somebody has connected it to IFTTT at some point, but it’s just not really a good match to home automation at this time unless, again, drones or robot vacuums or something like that and specifically where you want them to know what’s in a room before they go in that room.

JDRoberts, you’ve smashed my dream of motion detection via walabot, but better to have proper expectations than fail miserably after attempting.

It seems many users are not happy with the current smart motion sensing technology so I had hoped to find something more top shelf. Thanks!

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I think most home automation users are pretty happy with indoor PIR motion sensors. They’re fairly inexpensive, they see a “room” the same way a person does, it’s easy to use multiples to create a zone, and as long as you understand what can cause a false alarm, most people seem satisfied.

Inexpensive outdoor PIR motion sensors have been a different issue. But Phillips hue and Zooz both have new ones out, so we’ll have to see how they work.

Meanwhile, more and more people are relying on the motion sensors integrated into cameras, particularly for outdoors, and that’s been another good option. They just cost a lot more.

Now there’s a whole entirely separate issue of micropresence so we’ll have to see how they work.

Meanwhile, more and more people are relying on the motion sensors integrated into cameras, particularly for outdoors, and that’s been another good option. They just cost a lot more.

Now there’s a whole entirely separate issue of micropresence indoors. A motion sensor can tell you that someone is in the kitchen, but not who. But again, that’s a different topic.

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Big deal. They used to sell XRay glasses in the back of Archie comic books.

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I’ve seen bosch motion sensors with microwave radar in addition to PIR at Lowes. I think it uses the radar to detect actual motion instead of changes in temperature, which they claim helps to alleviate false alarms. I have no idea how well they work, but they sound pretty cool.

Future firmware updates might be able to warm your cold pizza if you set it down in front of it. /s

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That’s easy. If there’s motion in the kitchen AND the smoke detector activates, it’s me.

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I haven’t figured out how to get facial recognition to work for that scenario either.
" If wife is seen in the kitchen and smoke detected announce that dinner is ready"

Here is a Walabot project using IFTTT https://www.hackster.io/wichai-tossamartvorakul/walabot-mobile-trigger-67d578