Withings Home: A Healthier Security Device

Do you have any idea what you have been inhaling all this time?

Withings do. Withings Home can tell.

Apparently, Withings Home is not your ordinary home security device. Coming from a company that innovates devices that are health focused, it doesn’t come as a surprise that even their security device can also do the same thing.

So, what does it do?

• First, it has good aesthetics. It’s the size of a mug with a wooden finish. You can camouflage it as part of your home decor.
• It has a curved stand with a magnetic base. This allows you to position it in anyway you want.
• It has LEDs on its base that can change colors. It’s apparently a good night light as well.
• It can play you a lullaby in case you can’t sleep. It only has one song, though.
• Much more, it can put your baby to sleep.

What does it really do? To secure your home, Withings condensed the essentials of a home security system into one device.

• To start off, it has an app. However, the app only works for iOS units only. Android devices may not get to enjoy it now. There is also no web interface to manipulate it with.
• It can give you high quality recordings.
  • It has an 1080 p HD camera that comes with a 5 MP CMOS sensor. It can stream feeds at 30 FPS.
  • It has a wider visual field at 135 degrees and you can zoom it all the way up to 12 x to get to the smallest detail possible.
  • It can even record with the same quality even in the dark. Yes, that’s a night vision feature and it comes automatic.
  • You can also hide the camera if you want. You just rotate the outer case to cover it. Unfortunately, it may not stop the camera from getting triggered.
• On its top, you’ll find an HD speaker and a microphone.
  • It has a two way talk feature. However, it’s not as simple as that. It has technologies integrated with noise reduction and echo cancellation.
• It also has both motion and noise sensors.
• It works by Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Setting up Withings Home is relatively easy. It can take you, more or less than, 30 seconds. It has a power port which means you have to plug it into a power source first. The app takes you through the installation. However, if there’s something wrong with the process, Withings Home will let you know. It has lights, remember?

• If the light begins to pulsate in blue, it means it’s awaiting bluetooth connection.
• If it turns orange, it means it can’t find or establish one.
• If it becomes red, something might actually be wrong and the connection has failed.
• If it turns green, then you’re good to go.

Withings Home can capture high quality videos of a specific event lasting for five seconds. It sends it over to a cloud storage account where it is kept for two days or longer depending on your subscription.

However, it doesn’t just record burglary and intrusion. You can use Withing Home’s recording feature to capture and compile special events. You can save it by timelines and form your own personal Home Diary. You can download the diary through the mobile app or simply go through them again and again if you want. Other than recordings, Withings Home can let you see what happens at home in real time. It also has a recap function that lets you review what happened at home in the last 12 hours.

As you already know, Withings Home can inform you if you have been inhaling bad things at home. It can monitor the air changes inside, particularly Volatile Organic Compounds.

In case you’re wondering, Volatile Organic Compounds or simply VOC, are the same compounds that you can find on your bleaching agents and some building materials.These are carbon based chemicals that are easily mixed with the air we breathe. They are potentially harmful to the body with prolonged and excessive exposure. They can give you cancer and other chronic illnesses. Creepy, aren’t they?

Withings Home has holes on its top. From there, it is able to analyze the air content at home and sends the data over to you. It measures air quality by PPM or Parts Per Million. If you have accidentally left that bottle of bleach open at home or those gas stoves, expect to receive an alert. Other than VOCs, Withings Home can also monitor your home’s temperature as well as its humidity.

To add to the list, Withings Home has another cool purpose. Although you may have figured this one already, it still gets listed.

Withings Home can look after your babies. More than that, it can take them to sleep.

• Basically, it knows the difference between a loud noise and a baby crying. It can alert you for both.
• It has an effective camera that works even at night.
• It can sing your babies a lullaby.
• It also has a set of LEDs that you can set to a certain color to keep them entertained. You can keep it on as a night light for the young ones, if you want.

If you like to get creative, you can include Withings Home in your recipe for an automated home. It works with the popular If This Then That and even has its own channel. IFTTT is that one specific place on the internet where you can find and use third party apps and devices to create a better digital life. Other than IFTTT, Withings Home is also compatible with Apple’s HomeKit.

Withings Home is still not available. However, you can sign up on their site to get notified of its release. To give you an idea, they have marked the device with a $199.95 price tag on their web site.  Other than their online store, you will also be able to purchase a Withings Home unit through Apple and other retail stores.