My ultimate goal is to use the “images” formed by 768 pixels, each containing the IR temperature of the objects on range, to determine presence in different parts of an area at my place.
I’m near to complete the sensor which is based on an ESP32 and ESPHome that provides MQTT messages to a topic, with an array that has 768 elements that represent the temperature on each pixel.
At this stage, my interest is to be able to see that image at Home Assistant using the camera component.
I have found a MQTT camera component variant at HA https://www.home-assistant.io/components/camera.mqtt/ that process messages whose content is the binary of the image.
But I have no experience on this. Can anyone please give me a light on where to look for info on how to decode the MQTT messages that contain the array of data to create what the Camera component needs?
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to continue any longer with that idea. But I would like to resume it for the reasons you mention.
I only have some old code for Arduino regarding the collection of the data from the MLX. I guess it is not a problem to make a working component for the ESPHome from that code.
The issue for me is on the HA side. I’m not sure how to accomplish the presence detection from the data reported by the EPS.