Hiome to Begin Shipping its ‘True Occupancy Sensors’

Chicago-based Hiome, are preparing for a December shipping date for their own unique type of occupancy door sensor, or what they describe as the first ‘True Occupancy Sensor’. Quite a bold statement, but unlike other motion, contact or occupancy sensors, the Hiome device works differently.

The company’s website states;

Hiome Door is a small sensor for your door, a giant leap for your home. It knows exactly how many people are in each room, even if you haven’t moved for hours. Your lights stay on while you’re in the room, and immediately turn off when you leave. No more waving your arms around in the dark. Hiome Door sits in your doorway to count entries and exits. It uses over 66 data points to instantly detect you. It doesn’t matter if there are multiple people or the room has multiple doors. You just need one sensor per door, and Hiome will figure out the rest. You don’t have to carry your phone around or learn to do anything differently. Just walk through the door. Your home works for everybody, even when your phone is on the charger or you have guests over. Hiome Door is an advanced thermal sensor that sits in your doorway and detects when somebody is entering or leaving the room. It knows what direction you’re moving, so it can keep count of how many people are in the room to know if the room is still occupied. Hiome Door cannot see inside your room, so it doesn’t matter how big the room is.

Fairly impressive. However, unlike traditional sensors that generally rely on batteries, the Hiome door is offered in three options – wired, recessed and battery operated.

• The wired option simply uses a USB cable that plugs into any USB power supply or USB wall socket (yes, they do exist). The cable is 5m/16ft long, so more than adequate to be placed along the side of a door frame and reach an outlet.
• The recessed option has the sensor inside the door frame but does require the sensor to be connected to a 3.6-12v power supply, much like a doorbell for example.
• The battery version, which would probably be the easiest of the three, doesn’t use standard batteries but instead has the sensor connected to a device that houses a rechargeable battery that should last over a month before needing to be recharged. Hiome offer the battery pack in three finishes – Black, White and Bronze

The company also state that any data collected in order for these devices to function as they do, “…is processed locally for the best privacy, security, and speed.”

The door sensors talk to Hiome Core, the hub for the Hiome system, which syncs all of your sensors without using any form of cloud connection. It’s capable of showing real-time occupancy, historical logs, and more. the Core uses an ethernet cable to connect to your router. The Hiome Core can be purchased with one of the kits they offer.

Currently, the one ‘fly in the ointment’ is that whilst these do apparently work with HomeKit, the product is still awaiting certification from Apple, so they don’t officially work with HomeKit at present. The Hiome system is compatible with Philips Hue and MQTT though.

For more information or to pre-order, visit Hiome’s website – Hiome.com

Thanks to Dale Wright for the heads-up