Turn your ESP32/ESPHome devices into motion sensors - No extra hardware required

[wet echo]

Hey everyone! I would like to promote my project called TOMMY Motion Sensor.

It allows you to transform your Wi-Fi devices (ESP32/ESPHome) into motion sensors, which works through walls and obstacles without requiring extra hardware.

TOMMY works using a technology called Wi-Fi sensing which consists of forming a mesh network between devices in your specified zone, in which movement causes disturbances to the Wi-Fi signal. The algorithm then predicts when motion happens.

I have created a landing page on https://tommysense.com with more info and installation instructions. For support, feature requests and updates please join the Discord channel https://discord.gg/dKPYKkXQjN

I hope you like it! 🙂

[pine moat]

Interesting but I find it hard to trust a tool that promises privacy and seems to not be open source. Why all the github proxies and China hosting?

[wet echo]

I understand that it not being open source makes it harder to verify privacy claims. But the practical proof is that it works completely locally and doesn't require any internet connection.

Could you clarify what you mean by GitHub proxies and China hosting? I'm EU-based in Denmark, so there should be none of that 🙂

[pine moat]

Sorry, while trying to find anything on you/your code I found the following on github.

https://github.com/ha-china/hassio-addons/tree/main/tommy

Nevertheless, I still find your project too non transparent.

[wet echo]

Understood. I respect that position. Not every project is for everyone! 🙂

Just a note on that GitHub link. I think it's a Chinese Home Assistant fork that mirrors community add-ons. Not something I control or am affiliated with.

[loud belfry]

Hey @wet echo would you be willing to explain a bit more about your project? Why it was created? Why it is not opensource? What is the motivation behind it?

I would love to give it a try but it feels a bit more like some kind of data gathering scheme without any sensible introduction.

[wet echo]

Hey @loud belfry, sure! It started out as a project just for my own use, but has evolved into software I hope to be able to work on full time in the future.

There's been a lot of interest in having TOMMY as an open source project, but I'm reluctant to do this, as I have spent almost all of my free time the past couple of years developing it, and while I really enjoy working on it, I need to be able to generate some sort of income from it for it to be something I can sustain. How exactly that's going to work is something I have yet to figure out, but I'm thinking of a freemium model with paid features such as stationary presence detection in the future. If I do introduce paid features, all current users will be offered free lifetime licenses.

So there's no catch. I'm just not ready to open source it before I have found a sustainable business model for it.

There is absolutely no data gathering or any kind of funny business. That is very easily verifiable through packet sniffing or simply isolating TOMMY from the internet. I'm happy to help with these tests. I'm considering getting some kind of third-party to audit the code in the future though, although it seems people's concerns are addressed when I explain these things. I should have probably added this as an introduction/disclaimer in the original post though 🙂

[loud belfry]

@wet echo thank you for the explanation. Now I do understand the current situation and your motivation. I hope someone from the community will do not the audit per se but at least some testing and will release results.

Looking forward to test it myself and if it works this might be pretty good solution to motion sensing. Thank you for your effort.

[wet echo]

@loud belfry Thanks for understanding 🙂 I definitely think someone with the know-how of packet sniffing will test out the privacy claims at some point.

I'm looking forward to hear your results!

[last bolt]

Interesting! ill bookmark it for sure (from a list of lengthly backlog project)
I wonder how would it work with locations having multiple floors

[wet echo]

Glad you like it 🙂

It works on multiple floors. You can either have devices on each floor which forms a single floor zone or you could create a multi-floor zone where you have a few devices on the highest floor and a few on the lowest and capture all movement on either floor or in between.

[hollow parrot]

Sorry for the confusion.
This repository exists because, in China, we often face internet issues when installing add-ons.
The goal of this repository is to help Chinese Home Assistant users install excellent add-ons more easily after network optimization. If you do not want your add-on included in this repository, please let me know.

The above message was sent at the request of the repository owner, as he seems unable to participate in this discussion. He has provided his contact information: [e-mail], or you can contact the repository owner directly via the repository issues.

[wet echo]

I’m okay with you keeping it there. But maybe add a disclaimer in English to avoid confusion. Just a suggestion 🙂