fix(occupancy): bound eigenvalue person-count to single-link max — #894

field_bridge::occupancy_or_fallback returned FieldModel::estimate_occupancy
unbounded (internal ceiling 10), while the perturbation fallback below it
and score_to_person_count both cap at 3 ("1-3 for single ESP32"). On noisy
or under-calibrated CSI the eigenvalue count inflated → "10 persons when 1
present" (#894, seen when --model fails to load → heuristic mode). Bound the
eigenvalue path to a shared MAX_SINGLE_LINK_OCCUPANCY const (3) so every
single-link estimator agrees. Genuine higher counts come from the
multistatic fusion path. Build clean, field_bridge tests pass.

Author: ruvnet

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### Fixed
+- **Person count no longer leaks up to 10 in heuristic mode — addresses #894.** `field_bridge::occupancy_or_fallback` returned the eigenvalue-based `FieldModel::estimate_occupancy` count **unbounded** (its internal ceiling is 10), while the sibling estimators on the same single-link data — the perturbation-energy fallback right below it and `score_to_person_count` — both cap at 3 ("1-3 for single ESP32"). On noisy / under-calibrated CSI the eigenvalue count inflated, producing the "10 persons reported when 1 present" symptom (seen when `--model` fails to load and the server runs on heuristics). Bounded the eigenvalue path to the shared `MAX_SINGLE_LINK_OCCUPANCY` (3) so every estimator on one link agrees; genuine higher counts come from the multistatic fusion path, not a single-link covariance estimate.
 - **Person count no longer pinned to 1 — addresses #803.** The aggregate occupancy reported by the sensing server was derived from `smoothed_person_score`, an EMA-smoothed *activity* score (amplitude variance / motion / spectral energy). That score saturates near a single occupant — one moving person maxes it out — so it cannot discriminate occupancy *count* and stayed clamped at 1 across S3/C6 and the Python/Docker/Rust servers. Meanwhile the count-aware per-node estimates the ESP32 paths already compute (firmware `n_persons`, and the DynamicMinCut `corr_persons`) were stashed in `NodeState::prev_person_count` and then **discarded** by the aggregator (same dead-wiring class as #872). The aggregator now takes `max(activity_count, node_max)` via a unit-tested `aggregate_person_count` helper, so a node positively estimating 2–3 occupants is surfaced instead of overwritten. The fix can only ever *raise* the count when a node reports more people, so the single-occupant case is provably never inflated (regression-guarded by test). **Second half:** the pure-CSI per-node path itself clamped its own estimate — the DynamicMinCut occupancy (`estimate_persons_from_correlation`, 0–3) was mapped to a score via `corr_persons / 3.0`, putting 2 people at 0.667, *just under* the 0.70 up-threshold of `score_to_person_count`, so the per-node count never climbed past 1 (so `node_max` was also stuck at 1 for CSI-only nodes). Replaced it with a threshold-aligned `corr_persons_to_score` mapping (1→0.40, 2→0.74, 3→0.96) whose steady state round-trips back to the same count through the EMA + hysteresis, while still gating transient noise. A convergence test replays the exact EMA loop to prove min-cut=2 now reports 2 (and documents that the old `/3.0` mapping reported 1). Full multi-person accuracy still depends on the underlying estimator quality; this removes the two server-side clamps that masked it. 586 sensing-server tests pass.
 - **MQTT publisher now actually runs (`--mqtt`) — closes #872.** The `--mqtt*` flags were defined only in `cli::Args` (dead code, referenced nowhere) while the binary parses a *separate* `main::Args` with no mqtt fields, and `main.rs` never started the `mqtt::` publisher — so MQTT/Home-Assistant integration was completely unwired (`--mqtt` errored as an unexpected argument, and even with the Docker image's `--features mqtt` build the publisher never ran). Earlier attempts chased a Docker *rebuild*; the real cause was disconnected *code*. Extracted the flags into a shared `cli::MqttArgs` (`#[command(flatten)]` into both structs), spawn the publisher on `--mqtt`, and bridge the JSON sensing broadcast into the typed `VitalsSnapshot` stream with a defensive `serde_json::Value` mapping. Verified end-to-end against `mosquitto`: 20 HA auto-discovery entities + live state (presence/person-count/…). 577 (default) / 580 (`--features mqtt`) tests pass.
 

v2/crates/wifi-densepose-sensing-server/src/field_bridge.rs

@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ const ENERGY_THRESH_2: f64 = 12.0;
 /// Perturbation energy threshold for detecting a third person.
 const ENERGY_THRESH_3: f64 = 25.0;
 
+/// Maximum occupancy a single ESP32 link can plausibly resolve (#894).
+/// The score heuristic (`score_to_person_count`) and the perturbation-energy
+/// fallback below both cap here; the eigenvalue path is bounded to match,
+/// rather than leaking its internal `min(10)` ceiling on noisy / under-
+/// calibrated CSI (the "10 persons reported when 1 present" symptom).
+/// Resolving more than this from one link's subcarrier covariance is not
+/// reliable — genuine higher counts come from the multistatic fusion path.
+const MAX_SINGLE_LINK_OCCUPANCY: usize = 3;
+
 /// Create a FieldModelConfig for single-link mode (one ESP32 node = one link).
 /// This avoids the DimensionMismatch error when feeding single-frame observations.
 pub fn single_link_config() -> FieldModelConfig {
@@ -55,9 +64,15 @@ pub fn occupancy_or_fallback(
                 return score_to_person_count(smoothed_score, prev_count);
             }
 
-            // Try eigenvalue-based occupancy first (best accuracy).
+            // Try eigenvalue-based occupancy first (best accuracy). Bound it to
+            // the same single-link maximum the sibling estimators use — the
+            // perturbation fallback below and score_to_person_count both cap at
+            // MAX_SINGLE_LINK_OCCUPANCY. Without this, estimate_occupancy's
+            // internal min(10) ceiling leaks up to 10 persons on noisy / under-
+            // calibrated CSI (#894), while every other path on the same data
+            // would report ≤3.
             if let Ok(count) = field.estimate_occupancy(&frames) {
-                return count;
+                return count.min(MAX_SINGLE_LINK_OCCUPANCY);
             } // else fall through to perturbation energy
 
             // Fallback: perturbation energy thresholds.