New Tech Turns WiFi into Motion Detecting Home Alarm System

Over the past few years’ we’ve seen researchers using WiFi signals to do all sorts of new things, such as being able to see through walls and detect motion. A Netherlands-based company called Gamgee has now taken this a step further by making it possible to turn your home WiFi into a motion detecting home alarm.

Most home alarm systems involve a combination of sensors (e.g. PIR) for motion, door locks and cameras, many of which need to be fixed – at ceiling level – into the corners of your room (often with caveats that limit placement). But what if you could achieve a similar system by deploying WiFi mesh networking units that could also detect motion within your home, without the need for any extra sensors (PIRs etc.).

The Gamgee WiFi Home Alarm system, which has just entered its market testing phase, proposes to achieve this by monitoring for disturbances (reflections) in your home WiFi signals as people pass through them. The system harnesses AI so that it can learn and distinguish between humans, rooms, pets and objects.

In fact, the system can even learn to identify different family members by how they disturb WiFi when within the home, which in turn also makes it easier to detect intruders. Naturally, the technology is designed to work locally and so no sensitive data leaves the home.

Gamgee CEO, Paul Hendriks, said:

“The power of Wi-Fi extends far more than just broadband connectivity. Not only can we offer improved and intelligent home security through Wi-Fi sensing and AI, but our smart home management app also provides service providers with the ability to differentiate their offerings and unlock new revenue streams and upselling opportunities.

The home security Wi-Fi sensing use case is just the first of many. The technology has applications for elderly care services and energy-saving which will be introduced to the market in the not-too-distant future.”

Gamgee says they’re potentially able to incorporate all of this into existing routers, which might provide UK broadband ISPs with an additional upsell feature for customers – differentiating their mesh solutions from the wider market. The company already seems to be working with AVM (FRITZ!Box), although for the time being all the talk seems to focus on their own bespoke kit.

However, there are a few unknowns with this approach, such as with how much such a system will cost and whether it means adding a WiFi mesh unit into every single room in order to be effective. Similarly, there’s very little information about the network performance of the mesh units themselves (WiFi spec, speeds etc.), which is important if you’re selling it as a home network solution too.

Overall, it sounds like an interesting idea and one that may help to reduce false alarms, even though we’d still like a camera option as an addition.