Belkin isn’t saying that your home is dumb, it’s just saying it could be smarter. The WeMo line from Belkin is quickly becoming one of the most complete lines of connected smart home products, and Belkin bolstered the brand further during CES 2015 with the announcement of new sensors.
WeMo is upping security with a new Door & Window Sensor that can tell the home owner when someone has entered the door or when a window has been left open. And beyond just serving as an extra pair of eyes on your house, the door and window sensors can act as a convenience as well. They can relay to the rest of your system – your lights, thermostat, etc. – that you’re home and make your home feel more welcoming when you walk in the door.
The new keychain sensor Keychain Sensor makes it easier for the rest of the house to know where you are. It’s essentially a person tracker, made to be worn on your own keychain to communicate with the home when you leave and arrive, or on the keychain of a loved one so you know when they’re home. If you’re a parent who wants to know when your child arrives home from school, the keychain sensor will let you know. If you’re a rebellious kid who doesn’t want to go home, life just got tougher.
WeMo also has a new Alarm Sensor that will bring your current alarm systems up to speed. It picks up on the frequencies set out by existing alarms and uses that information to signal you via smartphone if you’re away.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the new lineup is the WeMo Water with Echo Technology. It’s designed to be attached to a pipe to monitor changes in pressure and vibrations that occur. Belkin claims that the sensor is capable of capturing information ranging from the time of use to the individual cost of any water-using system in the house. It can calculate water consumption and give alerts should, in a worst case scenario, a pipe were to burst or being leaking. While the sensor can’t shut off the water itself, it can give enough of a heads up to prevent major damages.
Finally, there’s a new Room Motion Sensor that ditches the previous iteration’s need for AC power. The new WeMo motion sensor runs on batteries and has been improved to detect heat signatures, thus eliminating false alarms caused by your pet pacing back and forth during the day.
These new WeMo sensors use ZigBee chipsets as opposed to Wi-Fi, as a way to preserve the battery power of the devices. To bridge the gap to your home network, Belkin has also rolled out a Wi-Fi to ZigBee Bridge that can translate the language and relay it to your existing Wi-Fi router.
Though no price has been announced, Belkin stated the new sensors and accompanying bridge will be available in the second quarter of 2015. The lone exception is the water sensor, which is still in the testing phase.
