In the next few months my mom may be moving closer to my borther and my self. Im starting to think of ways to keep tabs on her with out being intrusive or imposing HA on her that she may not want. I came across this article that seemed promising. Has anyone seen or used these devices (either by themselves or been able to integrate them into HE (or HA)? or conversly, does anyone have any suggestions that you have implemented for keeping tabs on olders family memebers? I would like to hear any thoughts or ideas you might have!
From her perspective, how would this be different from you installing a hubitat hub with some motion sensors and maybe contact sensors?
Looks to be simple powered motion sensors.
That was actually my first thought. I'm not opposed to that at all (I even have the spare hub to do it). I was originally thinking a hub, a few motion sensors in certan key areas that she would have to pass through and set up notifications if there isn't movement by certain times or over a cetrain amount of time. She wouldn't even necessarily need to have any automations set up (unless she wants them, which I doubt). Ideally would be nice if this could integrate into HE (I have seent them an email asking just that) .
The biggest drawback (to her) I can see to HE and motion sensor would really be just aesthetics.
Interesting use of Wi-Fi, have to wonder if interference might be an issue in a condo type application.
WiZ has something as well.
SpaceSense
That’s a pretty low barrier to overcome.
Hubitat’s already a known commodity to you, that seems like the biggest advantage to me.
I recall there was an HE app by BPT World but its no longer maintained:
Is there anything you can do just using an intruder alarm system? On the systems I install in the UK (Pyronix) , that functionality has been added in recent years. I can set an occupancy timer on any of the sensors. If none of the sensors in the group trigger before the timer expires, various actions can be configured, one of which is to send an alert to the app on a family members phone.
- discrete motion sensors with LED's disabled
- contacts on the main doors
- water level sensor in the toilet cistern
- power monitoring outlet(s)
That ensures someone is moving, getting fresh air, going pee pee and watching TV (all essential day to day especially TV!)
hahah, you dont know my mom! You are correct, since I already know Hubitat, I would be inclined to go that route. It wouldnt be annything for me to set it up. Just have to convince her not to obsess over the motion sensors. With these being outlest, she woudl be far less likely to notice , that was the only reasonit caught my attnetion. It would be nice if there was eventually some way to being it in to HE. I also am interested in the Aqara presence senors for this, actually would probably be a best choice for this, but again, she would likely take issue with power cable running to it.
Humm hadn't even thought about that! Guess that gives me a reason integrate some ecowitt stuff too!
UPDATE: Response back from Threshold said it is cloud based. They will have an integration for Home Assistant soon. So, bringing it over to HE is a possibility, if one wanted to go to the effort of setting up, HE and HA for this purpose. Probably more effort than it's worth. I'll probably just stick with HE and some Motion and Contact sensors.
Maybe more for future planning for you, but wanted to mention that we had to keep some sort of tabs on my mom as she aged. One thing we finally decided was required was to put just one camera in the house, in the kitchen, along w/a Nest smoke alarm (smoke alarm in the eating area away from the cooking area. She had left things cooking a couple times and it was getting risky. (My niece lived w/her, but she wasn't home all the time, of course.)
So if the Nest alarm was triggered I'd get a notification and I could look on the camera to confirm if things were dangerous or not, and I needed to call one of her neighbors, or a fire truck. Really helped a lot for peace of mind for both of us, as she ended up liking that I could watch over her remotely. I also put cameras on the outside, more to make her feel safer than anything else. So a really good win-win. Since people spend a fair amount of their time in kitchens, it also allowed us to see her remotely on a regular basis and confirm she was looking good.
The other stuff we did was develop regular communication w/a few neighbors (they were great) so that if we were not in town and were concerned we could text/call and ask them to take look in on her, and they knew who to call if they were concerned. A jar of my homemade jam and a loaf of my sourdough bread and they were 100% on "Team Mom Watch."
How about putting motion sensors on the floor?
Like, under the kitchen cabinets, bedroom furniture, etc.
As long as they don't get, literally, swept away, lol.
A friend of mine has a snazzy Apple watch that does 'help, I've fallen and can't get up' type of stuff. Had to turn it off while skiing, lol.
Third Reality has a Matter Night Light with motion detection. Would work for this.
Hubitat is fine for convenience. For life safety I'd suggest using some fully monitored system. Alarm.com has one and if you use a Qolsys panel you can get the info to Hubitat. I'd also suggest an Apple Watch with cell service for fall detection and emergency call ability.