Part 2. Presence Detection

The way that we're going to detect "presence" is by scanning the WiFi network for certain devices' MAC addresses. These addresses are the unique identifier that your phone or laptop gives when connecting to a network.

Connect your Pi to WiFi if it isn't already. The Pi needs to be connected to the same network your device will connect to. If you have 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz options on your router, the Pi can only connect to the 2.4Ghz option - no worries, though! It can still detect devices on the 5Ghz band.

Detecting devices can also be done via Bluetooth; however, I hate leaving my phone's Bluetooth on, so I figured WiFi would be a bit more reliable.

Before we get started, we need to make sure that the Pi is updated. This could take a little while:

sudo apt-get update

Now let's move on to scanning for devices!

<< Part 1: Equipment - Part 2: Scanning for Devices >>