As we have mentioned before zones are an incredibly important part of the smart home. One of the things we also model for each zone is recent activity levels. In addition to zone occupancy and zone occupancy and presence, the zone activity level provides useful context and can be used to make occupancy more accurate.
In order to get good activity data for each zone, you need multiple sensors and sensors with low latency. Typically this means using motion sensors, PIR sensors and door contact sensors. Where motion or PIR sensors are used, they really need to be wired, in order to be able to provide quick updates in rapid succession. Wireless PIR sensors tend to use battery saving techniques, which mean there are longer gaps between each activation.
Activity tracking requires a good algorithm to work well and this is the main focus of our research in this space.
