Around The Home

This new home security system is centered around a flying camera drone

View 4 Images
The Sunflower Home Awareness System includes a camera drone and smart lights
Sunflower Labs
The Sunflower Home Awareness System includes a camera drone and smart lights
Sunflower Labs
The Sunflower Home Awareness System includes a flying camera drone 
Sunflower Labs
The Sunflower Home Awareness System includes solar-powered smart lights armed with a suite of sensors
Sunflower Labs
The Sunflower Home Awareness System includes a camera drone and smart lights
Sunflower Labs
View gallery - 4 images

The military has been using drones for surveillance abroad for years, and now Sunflower Labs is looking to bring the same approach to home security. The Sunflower Home Awareness System makes use of solar-powered "smart lights" that work in concert with a flying camera drone to keep an eye on your property.

The system is based around the lights, which each contain more than a dozen sensors. Once a number of them are installed around the property, they work together to detect motion, vibration and sounds. When the network detects an event, the system sends the owner an alert that can be dismissed if there's nothing to worry about or the user can choose to deploy the flying camera for a closer look at what's going on.

The quadcopter carrying the camera automatically heads to the location of the detected event, using the smart lights as navigational beacons, and sends back live video to the user's mobile device. It's kind of like a flying version of the Ring home security system.

Sunflower says the system is also designed to learn your home's normal patterns to make it easier to disregard regular events like familiar cars in the driveway or animals in the yard.

The drone has an advanced autopilot and requires no actual piloting skills. Its camera is equipped with an infrared light for night vision and points down, so it will typically be observing from above.

Unlike a lot of products featuring new, relatively unproven uses of drones we've seen, this is one that's not bootstrapping its efforts on the back of a crowdfunding campaign, at least not yet (the more basic Rook home drone went the Indiegogo route earlier this year.) Sunflower Labs is made up of a team split between Silicon Valley and Switzerland and managed to raise a seed round of funding from investors, reportedly valued at US$2.1 million.

Sunflower Labs is currently taking pre-orders for the system on its website. Pricing targets are currently $159 per Smart Light and $799 for the Flying Camera, but the company also plans to offer the system for a monthly subscription fee. For now, early adopters can get in line for a $25 reservation fee that will be converted to a $100 discount when the system ships in 2017. Sunflower says the reservation fee is fully refundable.

Sources: Medium, TechCrunch

View gallery - 4 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
5 comments
swaan
Haha.. where did the drone come from? From their website it looks like they haven't really figured that part out. I mean the system looks nice but I can't see how it could work in winter: the lights will be underneath the snow and designing a snow proof drone system means it should be a hanging base with access from the bottom.
Gizmowiz
Cool toy for the rich.
Peter Kelly
There are so many potential flaws and drawbacks in this it is hard to know where to start!
First and foremost, a security system needs to be robust and very, very reliable. I cannot see a situation where a drone could sit, uncalled upon for months, to suddenly work flawlessly when needed.
Even if it did work, the current technology of drones simply won't cope with the range of possible obstacles. For instance, what happens if the alarm, whether real or a false trigger, occurs during the middle of a storm? Does the drone head off into 50mph winds and driving rain? What happens if the trees are flapping around, or debris is flying through the air?
Technology can be great, when applied with intelligence, but this would just be a 'gadget' and a very silly one at that!
Anru
Notice that in the video the house is completely and utterly isolated. Never-the-less, good thing drones are completely silent. This will work well in a neighborhood where kids go to bed at 8:00 PM and maybe a grown up has to get up very early in the morning. Who would dare be disturbed by the scream of four rotor blades at two in the morning. I bet this will be as effective as car alarms. Maybe this whole thing could be adapted for a self-driving Harley Davidson.
rohit1979
Nice toy for the super rich with hectares of real estate to watch over