Wi-Fi gains a new smart-home use case: detecting people via CSI

Wi-Fi sensing based on Channel State Information can detect motion and presence by measuring how human bodies alter radio waves, rather than tracking connected devices. The TOMMY project lets Home Assistant users turn cheap ESP32 boards into presence sensors: stationary detection requires ESP32-C5 or C6, while older models only detect motion.

• CSI analyzes amplitude and phase of radio channels, not connection logs
• A TOMMY zone needs at least two ESP32 boards on the same band, one meter apart
• Only ESP32-C5 and C6 detect stationary presence; others handle motion only
• ESPHome builds must use ESP-IDF and the TOMMY server must stay online