I like the look of Telegram, it even has Siri support, I will definitely look into it further.
Another option would be messenger
https://home-assistant.io/components/notify.facebook/
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/send-api-reference/image-attachment
I suppose Telegram could also be used to send commands to HA using Siri. That would be cool!
I thought about sending images to cloud storage as well so if the camera or pi at the door is damaged for whatever reason, you still have the images stored remotley. thats a little way off for now , I want to start on the face detection /recognition, or communication side of things now. these are the steepest hurdles and I would like to get through them , any advice help or suggestions will be welcome, as said before raspberry pi and pyrhon is a new world to me so my learning curve will be slow.
I am sure Dropbox or Google API allows a simple file upload, I would prob plump for that.
Re recognition, I will test both local and web options. For the local I would prefer to keep it python, as I know the language well and am more comfortable tinkering with the code than say C and open CV. Will start here http://machinelearningmastery.com/tutorial-first-neural-network-python-keras/
For the online, perhaps Rekognition, as above 
OR https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/12/how-to-train-and-classify-images-using-google-cloud-machine-learning-and-cloud-dataflow ? Google are definitely one to watch as they have promised to move into the IOT space and create tools for raspberry pi etc
Re telegram, one could trigger the camera to send an image using the bot too https://www.hackster.io/Salman_faris_vp/telegram-bot-with-raspberry-pi-f373da?f=1#=
Some nice functionality may be coming our way with the iOS app iOS actionable notification with camera image attached
One to try for on board facial recognition, lets hope Obama shows at my door one day… https://github.com/ageitgey/face_recognition
Ill give this a try over the next few days. Ive given up with openCV went through the whole process, 3 hours of compiling and it failed.
I dont have any IOS devices, we have mainly Android hardware. I cant play with that aspect of things.
Yeah, it would be nice to do everything from the doorbell itself, although currently through home assistant it is working well (still on my desk).
Ok got so many failed install attempts of different packages Im going to wipe and re-image the card and start-over.
so far Ive tried
opencv… fails during the build process
simplecv…Says it installs fine but try running a programme, no module found, run a shell I get a list of errors.
rekognise…also fails during the build process
Tried all this with and without firmware updates
None of them seem to want to install.
Im thinking it cant be the sofware , its got to be me or the pi.
Please post if you had similar problems.
So starting over
Ouch, sounds like a tedious time… I will look into the Google route
OK got all the code etc working nicely. Now I want to mount the pi on the door. My plan is to build/3D print a mount that will be supported by the door, something like the below. Anybody got the design for something like this that could hold the pi zero and camera in place?
This is how it goes together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PniWaZY1hYc
Rigged up my own, clearly going to need to change the lens on the front of the pi camera…
Luckily http://www.truetex.com/raspberrypi
Fantastic.
Love the prototype, sort of thing I would do.
Unfortunatley our door is all glass (no peep holes to work with)
But this has flared some inspiration.
I thought I could do something similar on the door frame, two holes to be drilled, one for the camera and one for the cables to the button.
Something to think about as I’m not sure if I want to make permanent alterations to the doorframe. though
Yes some people placing these cameras in unused key holes…
Well I think I broke my pi camera, so looking at alternatives. This one uses AV which I should be able to feed into the pi… Guide at https://www.modmypi.com/blog/how-to-add-an-rca-tv-connector-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero Anybody tried AV input to pi?
Im not sure if that will work as an input.
It is setup for composite tv isnt it?
Thanks, sounds like I would be opening another can of worms if I went down that route…
Plus I checked the diameter of my door hole and it is not wide enough ( 14 < 19 mm) for that camera.
I have another pi camera so I will try that next, with more care… I think it may be possible to mount the pi camera module in one of these, as the CCD is connected to the board via a SUNNY connector so could just get the SUNNY ribbon and feed it through the peep hole.
I ordered a lens and adapter for the pi camera, I think a follow up project might be a zoom lens controllable from HA…
