So I have often been accused of "working very hard at being lazy." It is something I decided to embrace a long time ago. My Dad once joked to me, "If you want to know the easiest way to do something, ask the laziest person you know." This was not intended as life long wisdom, but for some reason it stuck. I enjoy taking the long way around if it allows me a shortcut in the future.

This isn't one of those things. This is one of those things I did because it made me laugh and took less than an hour.

The Couchmaster is an ESP8266 (specifically the Lolin D1 Mini) with a couple of automotive seat occupancy sensors attached. These sensors are pretty simple, they just use pressure to connect two surface contacts in an on/off configuration. If the circuit is closed, someone is there. If it is open, they aren't. If you have ever had the seat belt warning alarm go off in your car because you had groceries in the seat next to you, one of these guys are likely responsible. You can buy them in bulk for just a couple dollars a pop. I use them all around my house for different purposes.

Automotive Seat Occupancy Sensor - This guy lives in my couch cushion.

I placed the sensors in the seat cushions of our couch, and plugged it in with a 5v supply. My wife's side of the couch has the sensor inside the cushion cover, above the foam. This was needed to get accurate readings. I'm a tubby fucker, so my side works fine with the sensor between the cushion and the couch. The micro controller connects to my wifi and registers as a presence sensor to the Home Assistant API. When it detects someone on the couch, it reports "Occupied" and when you get up, it reports that too.

One thing this is useful for is presence detection on the couch. When you are vegging out watching a movie, you aren't moving around very much and motion sensors are less useful. I don't use it for that, though. I just use it to pause the TV when I stand up.

When the sensor goes from Occupied to Vacant, Home Assistant checks to see if there is a movie or TV show playing. If so, it will pause it for me.

How useful is this? How much time do I save by not having to grab the remote? Probably not very much, but it still makes me laugh.