Motion-activated smart lighting is pretty magical. Figuring out how to put little white motion sensors all over your house to make it work isn’t. With its new SpaceSense feature, Signify may have come up with the perfect solution: let the light bulbs do the work.
SpaceSense is a software feature coming to Signify’s Wi-Fi smart lighting line WiZ later this month. It uses Wi-Fi sensing technology that detects changes in the strength of the Wi-Fi signal caused by movement to turn the lights on when someone enters a room and turn them off when the movement stops. Wi-Fi discovery is already used in some routers and security systemsand it was only a matter of time before a lighting company figured out how to apply it to their technology.
At WiZ, the detection technology is embedded directly in the light bulb; you only need two or more WiZ lights in a room to get started. Wiz has a wide range of smart light bulbs with Wi-Fi starting at $11, so the barrier to entry is low. The company also recently released several new products, including a floor lamp and portable lamp, as well as new color-changing outdoor string lights due next month.
Image: Meaning
All WiZ products work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Siri Shortcuts, IFTTT and SmartThings, and the company has promised it will support the new smart home standard Matter.
SpaceSense will be set up and controlled using the new WiZ V2 app, launching this month. The app also allows a user to adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection and set a delay to keep the lights on for a certain amount of time even if no motion is detected.
The technology is opt-in and does not detect or record a person’s exact location or recognize faces. WiZ says that all detection data is processed locally on the light bulb.
According to WiZ, SpaceSense will work on most of the WiZ products released since September 2021. It is working on compatibility with older models. Those brands include WiZ Bulbs, Philips Smart LED Bulbs, and any brand with the Connected by WiZ logo. It doesn’t work with Philips Hue lighting products from Signify, because Hue uses Zigbee and not Wi-Fi.
