Canary, an all-in-one smart home security system controlled with an app

Home security systems are all pretty similar, and very few of them put control in the hands of the user. Canary wants to help fix that, with an all-in-one device that allows the user to secure their home the way they choose to.

If you have a home security system right now, youre either clever enough to build and deploy your own sensors with WiFi enabled cameras and alarms, or you have something provided by a larger company. These pre-built systems are tied into your whole home, but ultimately give you very little control over your own security.

If your front door is opened and the alarm goes off when you arent there, has your house been broken into or did one of your family members not disarm the system in time? Will you know the answer to that question before the police arrive? Usually the answer is no, because you either dont have the ability to pull up your security cameras in your house or you dont have any installed. More importantly, you cant remotely control whether or not your system contacts the police with most systems. Canary wants to try to fix this, by making a single box packed with sensors and an app to offer you more control.

I sat down recently with Adam Sager, the Cofounder and CEO of Canary, to discuss his project. Sager explained that his goal was to make a single device that had everything in it users would need to gather important information about their homes, in order to make informed decisions about the state of their home when they werent there.

The system starts with a night vision capable HD camera with a wide angle lense in a clever looking WiFi enabled box that you can positioned anywhere in your home, and ends with a machine that can report temperature, motion, humidity, air quality, and can even act as the alarm for your house. Theres even a 3-axis accelerometer built in that can detect earthquakes and can report all of this information through the iOS or Android app.

Sager explained that the whole point of the hardware was to empower the user. He wanted something in his house that told him when the front door opened, but allowed him to look for himself and determine whether or not the police needed to be involved. He wanted a device that was capable of knowing that his apartment was filled with smoke, but allowed him to look and see if it was a fire or just an accident in the kitchen that had already been handled. If theres an incident, and the user doesnt get involved, the relevant emergency agency is contacted just like a normal security system. The only real difference here is the more granular control the user has, and the lack of sensors installed all over your house.

The most appealing part of Canary is the price. Theres no monthly rate for Canary, and each box you put in your house is $199. You can have as many of these boxes as you want, and the app will network them all together for you. As long as you have a place to put them, you can have as many as you want.

Canary is currently available as an Indiegogo campaign, with an early bird special running at $149 for a Canary box. If Canary can deliver on the experience they are promising, this inexpensive little box could be exactly what most people need in thier homes instead of an expensive and clumsy security system.

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Canary, an all-in-one smart home security system controlled with an app