The Moon is a floating eyeball that can control and monitor your house

By Mark Austin October 21, 2017

Moon by 1-Ring: The World's First Smart Camera to Defy Gravity

If you’re looking for a Smart Hub for your home — one that’s very cool and slightly creepy to boot — the new Indigogo project from 1-Ring may be the gadget for you. The Moon is a levitating 360-degree smart camera with day- and night-vision-capabilities, wireless charging, cloud storage, and numerous sensors to monitor everything that’s happening in your house.

The Moon is the first Indigogo venture from 1-Ring, and it will be available early next year. The developers have already blown past their funding goal, and still have a month left to go. “The world’s first levitating camera” rises gently and floats quietly just above its base, and it can smoothly rotate in any direction for a full 360-degree scan of its surroundings. It has voice and noise recognition built in, and it charges wirelessly, so it never runs out of juice

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The Moon also integrates seamlessly with your very own Internet of Things (IoT) and your smart home devices. Cameras are becoming more and more common in smart homes, and the Moon device is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, with support for Apple HomeKit is coming soon. It uses ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Smart, and an IR blaster to interact with your home devices.

The sphere encasing the wide-angle lens is made of aluminum, plastic, and rubber. It can detect, rotate, and begin automatically recording when it senses sound or motion in the room. It also includes a speaker and three noise-cancelling microphones so it can be used for voice chat.

You can automatically upload photos or video to a cloud storage service such as Google Drive or Dropbox. If you’re paranoid about privacy (and who isn’t these days?) you can also opt for storage on your own FTP servers or microSD card, notes Android Police.

The device is controlled remotely with the free Moon Commander app, letting you keep an “eye” on things when you’re away from the house. The camera can be removed from its base and magnetically attached to any metal surface. The wireless charge allows five hours of HD video streaming.

Sensors in the Moon can monitor room temperature, humidity, light, and carbon dioxide levels. It also includes a “Presence Simulation” tool that occasionally switches lights or other devices on or off as if someone was home.

If all goes according to schedule (this being an Indiegogo project, after all) the Moon will be available in March 2018 for a retail price of $330, although you can pre-order from its funding page for $209.

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