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I am looking for a "presence" solution with in a 3-5 meter radius. It can be a always connected device or a beacon type (just transmitting signals periodically. It is does not need to be receiving anything)

  1. Is it possible to use a smartphone as a zigbee end device? Or do I need a dedicated transmitter chip + battery to connect to a zigbee coordinator device ?

  2. Are there any Zigbee active tags like RFID active tags (or zigbee beacons)?

  3. I have read the new Zigbee input device standard, but I'm not sure if there is any device that comes in this category. Does the standard cover this kind of input device or is it just for consumer electronics?

Thank you.

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    I'm not aware of any phones that have a Zigbee radio, Why do you think Zigbee is the solution here? There are plenty of Bluetooth (BLE) or Ultra Wide Band beacons available. So far you've only described half the situation, what is the other side, what would receive the beacon signal and what will it trigger?
    – hardillb
    Mar 28, 2022 at 14:17
  • Can you clarify what “presence” means to you? Presence of anyone? Of a specific person/device? Are motion sensors not suitable? Do you have a device which can monitor reachability of a device? How precise do you need it to be? Zigbee devices can be reached much further than 3-5 meters. What about walls? Should presence across a wall be counted or not? How quickly do you need to detect presence or absence?
    – jcaron
    Mar 28, 2022 at 21:03
  • @hardillb I do not want to go with bluetooth (BLE), because when there is interference and no light of sight it is unreliable. I haven't heard of Ultra wide band beacons. I will look into it. The coordinator device/gateway device should receive the signal.
    – CodeWeed
    Mar 28, 2022 at 21:35
  • @jcaron presence means, if an end node/device come in the range of a zigbee router/gateway device. Motion sensor is not probably a good idea since many can passby these zigbee routers. (I am looking for a solution to people entering a building and leaving, I want a have real-time status of the number of people in the building). Yes I have read that zigbee can reach much further distances. I was trying to limit my requirements. I am thinking of creating a mesh of networks with zigbee routers in the building so that the walls will be not be an issue. At most a minute to detect the presence.
    – CodeWeed
    Mar 28, 2022 at 21:52
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    The only effective people-counting solutions on a larger scale (I.e. as opposed to counting the number of people in a room or an area) involve counting people entering and exiting. The only accurate way of doing that is the use of access badges with gates, but of course that only works for offices, not shops. For public spaces (shops, malls), solutions involve break beams (very inaccurate), overhead cameras (thermal or visible), and pressure-sensing carpets. Anything based on WiFi or BLE may give you trends but not accurate numbers. You can just forget about Zigbee in those circumstances.
    – jcaron
    Mar 29, 2022 at 0:02

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