WiZ’s motion-sensing smart lights can now monitor your home

WiZ has unveiled a new home monitoring system that uses its existing motion-sensing WiFi smart bulbs in combination with Wiz’s new $70 (€90) Indoor Camera. It takes of advantage of WiZ’s “SpaceSensing” feature to detect changes in WiFi signals caused by movement, then sends an alert to the app warning you of any potential home intruders. You can then check the camera to see what’s happening, while the smart bulbs can flash at intruders to scare them off. 

Similar tech has been employed by Linksys’ Velop mesh routers, which send motion detection alerts to the app. While not as powerful as a full security system with dedicated sensors, WiFi sensing is a decent, and much cheaper and simpler alternative. The Indoor Camera records in 1080p and has a 120-degree field of view, along with infrared night vision, image-based motion detection and two-way audio thanks to a built-in microphone.

To install it, all you need to do is find a spot for the camera and screw Wiz’s A19 full-color smart lightbulbs into you existing lamps or outlets. From there, if the alarm is triggered by motion, the lights can be set to flash to let intruders know they’ve been flushed out. At the same time, the system sends alerts to the new WiZ V2 app, and you can even set it to only monitor certain areas of your home. 

It even lets you program routines that control the lights and monitoring, which can be set on a schedule or enabled on the app. And of course, you can use your smart bulbs as you normally might in a smart home, activating them with voice commands, the app and more. For instance, you can set them to turn on and off at random to give the impression that someone’s home. 

It comes in a €160 bundle called the WiZ Home Monitoring Starter kit, which gives you three WiZ A19 full-color smart bulbs and the Indoor Camera. You can record footage locally via an onboard microSD card, or subscribe to cloud storage and get up to 30 days of recordings (all footage is end-to-end encrypted, WiZ promises). The company has promised that 80-90 percent of its current smart lights and home products will be compatible. The kit launches in Europe on June 15th, but there’s no US release date or pricing yet.