Meet the new WeMo Sensors due in 2015 (pictures)
Four new sensors will help provide context for WeMo-powered smart homes.
Meet the WeMos
Belkin introduced four new smart sensors for its WeMo smart home ecosystem this week at CES in Las Vegas. Click through and get to know them.
WeMo Alarm Sensor
The WeMo Alarm Sensor listens for the sound of your smoke alarm, then lets you know whenever it's going off.
WeMo Window and Door Sensor
The WeMo Window and Door Sensor sticks onto doors, windows, cabinets, and anything else that opens and shuts. When the door (or whatever else you're monitoring) opens, the two magnetic halves separate, triggering an alert in the WeMo app.
WeMo Keychain Sensor
The WeMo Keychain Sensor is another handy way of telling when people or things are coming and going. Just attach it to your keychain, your pet's collar, or your child's backpack, and you'll be able to track whenever it's home -- and when it's away.
WeMo Room Motion Sensor
The WeMo Room Motion Sensor offers wireless monitoring inside the home. It uses infrared detection, and Belkin tells us that'll keep your pets from setting it off every ten minutes.
WeMo Link needed
The new sensors use Zigbee radios to communicate, not Wi-Fi. That means that you'll need to have a WeMo Link plugged in somewhere in your home in order to translate the signals for your router. Currently sold with the WeMo LED Starter Set, the WeMo Link will soon be sold on its own, and as a part of new WeMo bundles.
WeMo Water with Echo Technology
But wait -- there's more! Belkin also offered us a sneak peak of "Echo Technology," which is coming a little further down the line. With this Echo-powered WeMo water sensor clamped under your sink, you'll be able to monitor water usage throughout your entire house.
App monitoring
Here's a glimpse of Echo in action. From just a single sensor, Belkin claims you'll be able to distinguish between all the different water sources in your home and monitor for things like leaks and inefficiency.
WeMo Power, too
Belkin's also planning to release an Echo-enable WeMo Power Sensor that will offer the same broad field of data for your home electronics.
Pricing and availability TBA
Pricing and availability for the new sensors hasn't been locked down yet, but they're expected to arrive by year's end, if not sooner, with Echo Technology falling later on the timeline.