New home monitoring system announced
Eaton Corporation, an industrial manufacturer located in Cleveland is soon to launch "Home Heartbeat" a new home monitoring system designed to give consumers a straightforward solution in a typically messy industry.
The system features a variety of different components, specifically including a base station, a network of detection sensors, and a Home Key (pictured above). The Home Key is the monitoring component - you carry it around with you to get a status on the "pulse" of your digital home. As long as it is within 90 feet of the base station, you can get a simple glimpse of the status of the devices around your house.
The base station is the 'brains' of the operation. It monitors all the sensors, and sends status updates to the Home Key. Two nice touches include USB connectivity for future upgrades, as well as support for SMS. This means you can get alerts sent straight to your cell phones. Although it could be freaky to get a text message informing you someone was opening a window, I guess it's better than getting robbed!
Finally, the sensors are put around the home to monitor different devices, including:
Now, much of this exists on the market today. The key differentiator here is that the Eaton system is designed for any consumer! They use a technology called "Zigbee" which, in a nutshell, enables all the sensors and base station and home key to network together wirelessly automatically. And yes, Zigbee works - quite well from the reports we're seeing. This means you could go out, buy a kit, and hook it up with their "three steps" program (which they claim takes about 10 minutes):
This sounds very interesting to me. I'd love to see the mass market have access to the "Bill Gates Home" technologies. I have not seen a demonstration yet, and don't know final pricing, but it is quite promising!
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