Send image when Reolink Camera detects person

Configuration
1

Hello. I’m relatively new to Home Assistant, so I think I have more of a conceptual question about whether something is possible.

The problem I’m trying to solve is: I have ReoLink cameras, and I’m able to see iPhone notifications when the cameras detect a person. At the moment, ReoLink does not include a preview image in their iphone notifications … and it takes lots of keyclicks to get to the right place to playback the footage to see what’s happening.

I was able to get a photo sent via email when a person is detected, but this is also not ideal from an efficiency standpoint.

My ideal case would be to create a HA notification that would include the Camera Detection message but also would include the preview picture in the notification.

Here’s what I’m trying to figure out:

How can I monitor and use the pictures that are sent by ReoLink. My best idea is that I can send this to an email box that is monitored by HA, not sure if this is possible or not. I also see that Telegram can be used as a vehicle, not sure if this is easier or harder.

I’d then want to extract the Subject of that email along with the attached image and aggregate that into a HA iphone notification that includes the text and the image. Again, not sure if this is possible.

At this point, I’m just looking for pointers on which integrations to use, and I’d also be grateful if someone said “not possible, don’t waste your time” as well.

Any hints welcome …

2

I have a ring door bell and when this detects motion, it takes a snapshot from one of the cctv cameras that has a better view of the front of the house (and better night imagery). It then sends that to a whatsapp group that me and my wife belong to. Works really well and notifies well if we are out and someone comes to the house.

Only downside is if we have a workman at the house, sends about 30 different messsages a day for motion, so looking to have an override that it can be disabled too. Automation is below.

alias: Motion Detected - Whatsapp
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.front_door_motion
    to: "on"
condition: []
action:
  - service: camera.snapshot
    data:
      filename: /config/www/frontdoor.jpg
    target:
      entity_id:
        - camera.front_drive
  - service: whatsapp.send_message
    data:
      clientId: default
      to: [email protected]
      body:
        image:
          url: >-
            https://xxxxxxx.ui.nabu.casa/local/frontdoor.jpg
        caption: |-
          Motion Detected 
           https://xxxxxxx.ui.nabu.casa/lovelace/cameras
mode: single
3

Any luck with this? I just got some Reolink cameras and an NVR to replace my Nest stuff, so trying to figure this out quick before my return window expires :laughing:.

I’m just trying to get a notification sent to the Home Assistant app on Android. I’ve got this so far, but it isn’t adding the snapshot:

alias: Front Door Motion
description: ""
trigger:
  - type: motion
    platform: device
    device_id: 50ce0b4f8a74701f59bf923d65256817
    entity_id: 067f7269e2ca7890ad9b757b64793279
    domain: binary_sensor
condition: []
action:
  - service: camera.snapshot
    data:
      filename: /config/www/frontdoor.jpg
    target:
      entity_id: camera.front_door_sub
  - service: notify. Notify
    data:
      message: Motion was detected at the front door
      title: Motion Detected at Front Door
mode: single
4

I was able to get reliable snapshots, but I was less lucky with iphone notifications.
I actually decided to send my alarm notifications via Telegram for a few reasons:

  1. It was easier for me to send a photo with the Telegram interface
  2. I was able to create a “keyboard” at the bottom of my messages that provides some function keys for enable/disable, etc.
  3. Since Telegram communicates via conversations, if there are three snapshots from three cameras I can see all of them in the thread as opposed to seeing them one at a time with iphone notifications.
5

Try this and see if it works:

  1. Create a text helper
  2. Add an action step that saves the filename of your snapshot to the text helper
  3. Add the following to your notify action under data:

image: “{{ states(‘input_text.name_of_your_text_helper’) }}”