Soon your smart lights could also recognise movement

Motion sensors are very popular among smart home users. Not having to fumble for the corridor light switch in the dark and not having to switch off the basement light manually - that's simply convenient. However, this usually requires additional hardware that recognises movement using infrared, for example.

This could change in the not too distant future: There are growing indications that a technology could soon turn mains-powered Zigbee devices into optional motion sensors.

The trick: signal fluctuations during wireless transmission

This is exactly what the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which is behind the Zigbee protocol, announced a few days ago with a function called Ambient Sensing. This should also allow existing, mains-powered Zigbee devices to be used as motion sensors, opening up new smart home possibilities - and exclusively locally without cloud communication.

A detection zone is defined by placing at least three Zigbee devices at a certain distance from each other. The devices are designed to recognise people in this zone. The video does not explain exactly how ambient sensing is supposed to work. However, it does suggest that it is about wireless network sensing (WNS).

WNS is actually used for network diagnostics purposes. The technology uses the communication of the connected devices to monitor interference in the radio signal strength. Fluctuations are also caused by the movement of a person in the monitored area. The system can therefore deduce that someone is in the detection zone.

A WNS technology is in the final development phase

This is where the company Ivani comes into play. It is a member of the CSA and has been developing a technology called Sensify since 2016, which it claims to be "the most reliable WNS solution in the world" and also the only one that works with Zigbee. Sensify is said to be as reliable as passive infrared motion sensors (PIR).

The magazine "The Verge" quotes Justin McKinney, one of the founders of Ivani: The basic firmware is already available on millions of devices. He states that Ivani is working with some major manufacturers who will soon be using Sensify. As soon as the manufacturers have implemented the function in their systems, it could be rolled out via a firmware update in the next few months.

"The Verge" speculates that the recent announcement of Ambient Sensing by the CSA and Sensify are related - and it also directly involves Philips Hue. Hueblog reported more than a year ago that Hue was working on such a function.