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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/PhantomDiata on 2026-02-19 15:29:32+00:00.
Like most of you, I got tired of my lights turning off while I was sitting still on the couch. I started with the usual template sensor and automation spaghetti: motion + media player + door sensor + timout. Eventually decided to just build a proper integration around it.
Area Occupancy Detection uses machine learning to combine all your room sensors into a single occupancy probability percentage. Instead of "motion off = room empty", it weighs motion, media players, appliances, doors, power sensors, history, and environmental data together. It learns your patterns over time (time-of-day, day-of-week) and uses gradual decay instead of hard timeouts.
It's been a slow-burn project but the latest update (v2026.2) is probably the biggest one yet, so figured it was worth sharing.
What changed in v2026.2:
The big additions are activity detection and sleep detection. The integration now outputs a sensor for what's happening in a room like watching tv, cooking, showering, sleeping, etc. These are constrained by room purpose so you won't get "cooking" in your bedroom. Detected activities also feed back into the probability calculation, so when multiple signals align into a recognizable pattern, the confidence goes up more than any individual sensor would justify. Think "im in the shower and the motion sensor cant see me" scenario, no longer and issue, from the temp and humidity it knows, even if your motion has timed out.
Sleep detection uses HA Person entities and the Companion App's sleep confidence sensor. If your phone reports you're asleep, the bedroom stays occupied overnight without needing a dedicated bed sensor.
Other stuff it does that people have found useful:
Wasp in Box: for single-exit rooms like bathrooms. Motion detected + door closes = room stays occupied until the door opens. Solves the shower problem.
Learns from History: it builds a 168-slot (24h x 7 days) model of when rooms are typically occupied. Gets more accurate over time with zero config.
Probability decay: rooms have purposes (passageway, kitchen, bedroom, etc.) with different decay rates. A hallway decays in 45 seconds, a bedroom takes 20 minutes.
Dual-model blending: presence signals (motion, media, appliances) are weighted at 80%, environmental (temp, humidity, CO2) at 20%. A noisy humidity sensor won't override a clear motion event.
Install with Home Assistant Community Store.
And of course, its all local.