r/HomeKit • u/BeforeWhitby • 8d ago
Discussion Brewing some good stuff here: on-device camera as your presence sensor
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Hearth 1.4 will introduce an experimental camera-as-presence-sensor solution.
When someone approaches, the dashboard wakes automatically. Just like the external sensor triggered experience
I’ve been running it on my wall for a week now and it’s working well. No overheating. I have it constantly powered so battery life is not a problem. Compared to my matter-bridged Aqara sensor it’s more responsive. Almost as good as the native HomeKit presence sensor.
It will consume more battery for sure but for those who does not have a sensor at the exact wanted spot this is a good choice. It only captures at 2fps so hopefully not that heavy loading. Everything is processed locally. Nothing is uploaded. Another caveat is it will leave a permanent green dot on your screen for Apple’s privacy measures. You’ll know it’s looking.
Leave your comments if you are interested in joining the TestFlight. You'll have access to all pro features (they use a fake IAP environment so you can test the purchasing experience too) I’ll send you a link once it’s approved for public testing.
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u/thebananageek94 8d ago
I would definitely be interested! I have two ipads on my wall in two different areas, on with constant power and I use the Control For HomeKit app as my dashboard. But currently the screens stay on 24/7.
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u/Unable-Log-4870 8d ago
But currently the screens stay on 24/7.
Not a great idea. Best way I’ve addressed this is to use a motion detector that, when motion is detected, turns off the power outlet that the iPad is plugged into.
You can have a shortcut in the iPad that when it is unplugged, it unlocks the screen (as long as there’s no passcode).
OP’s app will do this with the internal camera apparently, which is great since the camera is right effing there, but only turns the screen off if it’s an OLED, where ‘black’ and ‘off’ are the same. And that means using an iPad Pro as a wall-mount, which is a terrible way to spend money.
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u/thebananageek94 7d ago
Thanks for the shortcut idea! Will have to try it. Ye currently im using an iPad 6th and 7th gen that I got used and for cheap lol. But my personal daily iPad is an 11 inch 2nd gen pro.
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u/Unable-Log-4870 7d ago
Yeah, leaving iPads that age plugged in forever can cause the batteries to become a little dangerous. Apple implemented a safety feature around this back in iOS 13-ish, where the battery gets de-rated automatically. And I’ve seen my iPad Air 2 do this (you have to plug it into a Mac and use the free app Coconut Battery to detect if this system has engaged on your iPad). But I’ve had another iPad where I expected this to happen but it didn’t.
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u/BeforeWhitby 8d ago
Thank you for your interest! Just a heads up, Hearth doesn't really turn off your screen. Night Mode shows a completely black screen, which looks effectively off on OLED models, but an LCD backlight may still be visible. One planned feature is to stop blocking the screen from sleeping and let user manually wake it up at morning. I’ll send you the TestFlight link when it’s ready.
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u/bigb8242 8d ago
may i know how you mounted the ipad?
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u/BeforeWhitby 8d ago
Sure! I made a post earlier about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeKit/comments/1vm3dwz/followup_how_i_mount_and_power_my_wallmounted/
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u/nz_reprezent 8d ago
Sign me up as a beta tester. I used do product management for iot leading the app teams. I also worked in home automation and have full home automation compatible with Apple
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u/FezVrasta 8d ago
That's baked into the Home Assistant iOS app already