iPhone-Enabled Home Security System 'Canary' Tops $1.25 Million in Funding

MacRumors · Aug 14, 2013

iPhone-enabled home monitoring solution Canary has just hit $1.25 million in funding on startup campaign site Indiegogo, raising well over its intended goal of $100,000. The project is on track to become the most successful crowd-funded home product ever, and has received pre-orders from 67 countries in the world.

The $1.25 million commitment marks a stretch goal for project that will enable to Canary team to add additional features to the product such as an Ethernet port and adaptive video quality.

Canary is a single device that contains an HD video camera and multiple sensors that track everything from motion, temperature and air quality to vibration, sound, and activity to help keep you, your family and your home safe.

The accompanying app and service with Canary are set to be free of charge, although the company plans to offer optional service packages that include features such as increased data storage and call center options.

Canary is currently available via preorder/crowdfunding on Indiegogo, starting at $199. The estimated delivery for preorders is May 2014.

Article Link: iPhone-Enabled Home Security System 'Canary' Tops $1.25 Million in Funding

BreuerEditor · Aug 14, 2013

Interesting product. Although even with the "air quality" and other features I still think that iSmartAlarm has an upper hand with expandability, being able to rotate the camera, etc. Plus it's available now instead of waiting until May. .02

heehee · Aug 14, 2013

Take my money now.

longofest · Aug 14, 2013

Lots of claims on the site, but it doesn't look like this product will be UL 1076 listed, which is the baseline standard in the U.S. for burglary applications. A key giveaway is that they say they're not including a battery - burglary applications need to have battery backup.

I kind of wonder how this product raised so much money. Makes me wonder if the product team didn't themselves infuse a bunch of money they had already committed anyways in order to inflate the committed amount so that it would attract more attention.

thespazz · Aug 14, 2013

I'm amused by the fact it's a single device. Meaning, you have to buy multiple for multiple rooms in the house. Suddenly, the inexpensive $200 device becomes a costly investment to "secure" your home.

Also, what is to stop a burglar from just picking it up and walking away with it? Or unplug it?

dragje · Aug 14, 2013

BreuerEditor said:
Interesting product. Although even with the "air quality" and other features I still think that iSmartAlarm has an upper hand with expandability, being able to rotate the camera, etc. Plus it's available now instead of waiting until May. .02

The Canary device has streaming video in HD as far I can tell the iSmartAlarm only takes five picture if someone enters your house. With Canary you can check your space whenever you like and get live video feedback. You can also talk to a person in the room or to you cats

using the device when you're in some hotel on the other side of the world and you can also listen what's been said back. I think those aspects appeal a lot to a lot of persons.

The makers also made it clear that if they would get more money, and there is no debate if they are going to get more money, that they will invest this money in better quality products. They only got the shelve as a demo product, so what's been promised might just be a part of what buyers now will get at the end.

The SmartAlarm also doesn't give you the temperature and and the air quality within your room all tough I'm not interested in these facts myself.

I ordered one as well and I'm looking forward to test this product next year. Open source as well, so more apps will be brought out for this device.

Gasu E. · Aug 14, 2013

thespazz said:
Also, what is to stop a burglar from just picking it up and walking away with it? Or unplug it?

The lack of a signal would be a pretty sure sign that there was a problem at home.

topmike · Aug 14, 2013

longofest said:
Lots of claims on the site, but it doesn't look like this product will be UL 1076 listed, which is the baseline standard in the U.S. for burglary applications. A key giveaway is that they say they're not including a battery - burglary applications need to have battery backup.

I kind of wonder how this product raised so much money. Makes me wonder if the product team didn't themselves infuse a bunch of money they had already committed anyways in order to inflate the committed amount so that it would attract more attention.

I assess that 1076 is an older standard, for an older product family. They are anticipating that you have a system which is monitored at a central site, by other folks. I hear you about a battery back-up, but is that so bad? Can you just plug it into a cheap UPS to solve that problem?

Canary is totally different. It can be used for burgalars, but it can be used for other uses too. If you have a smart home (As some MacRumors folks have), they might to use this product differently. What about a cat or nanny cam? This could be fun for that, and clearly a typical burglar system would not be able to do that.

I think UL 1076 never thought of a product like Canary anyway - As I understand 1076 - [FONT=arial,helvetica](see the section from 1076)

1.2 A proprietary burglar alarm system as referred to by these requirements is a system in which alarm initiating circuits and devices are installed at a property and are connected directly or indirectly to constantly monitored receiving equipment at a central supervising station.

The central supervising station is located at the protected property and intended for operation by personnel responsible to the owner of the protected property. The protected property may consist of a single property or of noncontiguous properties under a single ownership.

The system is arranged so that a predetermined change in the alarm initiating circuits or devices automatically causes transmission of an alarm signal over a supervised signaling channel to the central supervising station. [/FONT]

heehee · Aug 14, 2013

thespazz said:
I'm amused by the fact it's a single device. Meaning, you have to buy multiple for multiple rooms in the house. Suddenly, the inexpensive $200 device becomes a costly investment to "secure" your home.

Also, what is to stop a burglar from just picking it up and walking away with it? Or unplug it?

1a: How many Canary devices do I need in my home?

Depends on your type of home. Here is a basic guide: 1/2/3 Bedroom(s) Apt/House with 1 main entrance: 1 device 3/4 Bedroom(s) Apt/House with 2 main entrances: 2–3 devices Mansion/Estate: 3–4 devices

6b: What if someone steals or smashes my Canary?

Canary packs an accelerometer in the event that if your Canary is moved you can be immediately notified. If the device breaks and cannot connect with our servers, our system will send an alert to your mobile phone to notify you of the break in connection. You will be able to then see footage leading up to that incident.

KittenMasher · Aug 14, 2013

Next to useless

Unless you live in a New York loft apartment this all seems a bit pointless. A bell box on the outside of you house is a great deterrent, even if it does not have a bell in it!

But this device does not have one. I guess it makes a bit on noise inside the house, or you can shout at the burglar So if I were the burglar I would find it, since its making a lot of noise should not be too hard to find and stuff in the washing up bowl full of water. Job done!

Now where is the money...

longofest · Aug 14, 2013

topmike said:
I assess that 1076 is an older standard, for an older product family....

It is a legacy standard, but it has been routinely updated. For home applications, I think the UPS runtime has to 2 hours, but I could be wrong and it could be 30 minutes. I get commercial/home mixed up sometimes.

Fair point regarding not connecting it to a central station. The intended purpose of this device class is indeed to notify the user themselves to take action, though it should be noted that there are an increasing number of options from central station operators that allow a user to make a decision and the central station will only take action if the user does not take action in a predefined time.

WilliamG · Aug 14, 2013

Anyone else notice the Pebble smart watch at 1:13 in the video?

PrimeMatrix · Aug 14, 2013

Before I could consider this (especially for a home security/alarm system), it would have to have at least a few additional features.
1. it has to incorporate multiple keypads, even as an option. Not everyone in my home has cellular phone access. Giving everyone a key fob is not ideal either.
2. It should be able to have other expandable devices, such as additional cameras, window contacts, additional motion sensors, glass break sensors, etc.
3. I refuse to pay monthly services. I think I read/saw something about additional storage available... Forget it! I would absolutely need a feature to connect to my home server with a FREE (or reasonably cheap) software that can record video/audio and store it on file (I would incorporate my off-site storage devices for this too).
Are these possible?

iLilana · Aug 14, 2013

Its a cool idea

we need more cameras. moooooooore

onepremiere · Aug 14, 2013

I like it, its just missing a pan, tilt, zoom on the camera!

yozh · Aug 14, 2013

So to compare to iSmartAlarm, looks like the price is 150$ if you want the camera on the iSmartAlarm and the videos are not archived, just 5 images, but you can view live video and the sensors are a big plus...

St8kout · Aug 14, 2013

Same idea as the Logitech HD security cam system

The Logitech emails a snapshot when motion is detected and/or you can monitor live feed. At least this is a little cheaper in price than the Logitech, but I wonder if you can add more cameras to the same system. Either way it can give you peace of mind if you are worried about break-ins when nobody is home. There are plenty of youtube vids showing bad guys caught on home cams.

The one camera idea is not all bad, because any bad guys in your house will no doubt go through every room. Just one cam in the living room will suffice. You won't need additional door/window sensors because if they really want in it won't be long before they are in view of the camera.

Just keep in mind that, unless your phone is using wifi, streaming HD video over cellular can cause less than ideal viewing, depending on your signal strength, not to mention eat up your cellular data allowance.

ZacS · Aug 14, 2013

dragje said:
The Canary device has streaming video in HD as far I can tell the iSmartAlarm only takes five picture if someone enters your house. With Canary you can check your space whenever you like and get live video feedback. You can also talk to a person in the room or to you cats using the device when you're in some hotel on the other side of the world and you can also listen what's been said back. I think those aspects appeal a lot to a lot of persons.

The makers also made it clear that if they would get more money, and there is no debate if they are going to get more money, that they will invest this money in better quality products. They only got the shelve as a demo product, so what's been promised might just be a part of what buyers now will get at the end.

The SmartAlarm also doesn't give you the temperature and and the air quality within your room all tough I'm not interested in these facts myself.

I ordered one as well and I'm looking forward to test this product next year. Open source as well, so more apps will be brought out for this device.

The iSmartAlarm (I work here!) also has streaming video for live viewing, you can manually take and save snapshots to your phone. Oh, we also have 350°x150° pan and tilt capabilities.

You're right, we don't offer temp and air quality in the house. YET. It's on the agenda (along with glass breakage, water leakage, smart plug, smoke detectors, CO monitors, outdoor cameras, doorbell communication, intercom, all sorts of fun stuff), and a lot of these additions will be ready before Canary is ready to go. All of the iSmartAlarm's sensors are be automatically added to the system. Basically, you unwrap a new sensor, and the system goes "Cool, you got a new motion sensor? Want to add it? The CubeOne CPU can support 40-80 sensors (depending on what type, some take up more bandwidth than others). We love that there are so many options for folks, big and small, like Canary, SmartThings, iSmartAlarm, ADT, Vivint - It really helps to drive technology and development further faster.

dragje · Aug 15, 2013

ZacS said:
The iSmartAlarm (I work here!) also has streaming video for live viewing, you can manually take and save snapshots to your phone. Oh, we also have 350°x150° pan and tilt capabilities.

Ah! Well, that's very nice indeed! The live video, would that be in HD if I may ask?

You're right, we don't offer temp and air quality in the house. YET. It's on the agenda (along with glass breakage, water leakage, smart plug, smoke detectors, CO monitors, outdoor cameras, doorbell communication, intercom, all sorts of fun stuff), and a lot of these additions will be ready before Canary is ready to go.

Interesting. Will these features be ready on the current hardware you're selling or on a new upgrade hardware version that has to come out still?

All of the iSmartAlarm's sensors are be automatically added to the system. Basically, you unwrap a new sensor, and the system goes "Cool, you got a new motion sensor? Want to add it? The CubeOne CPU can support 40-80 sensors (depending on what type, some take up more bandwidth than others).

That's really cool. What is the prize for a standard set? I'll check the website as well.

We love that there are so many options for folks, big and small, like Canary, SmartThings, iSmartAlarm, ADT, Vivint - It really helps to drive technology and development further faster.

I totally agree. And thanks for your reply, also good to read that you see competition as a good thing rather then then to bully your opponents down. You have an advantage on Canary. Still strange to see how Canary becomes a "hype" while there are good systems out there all ready by the way

ZacS · Aug 15, 2013

dragje said:
Ah! Well, that's very nice indeed! The live video, would that be in HD if I may ask?

The resolution is 640x480 - Night vision and really good lowlight vision too. You can check out an example, filmed at approx 6.30 pm PST with no interior light, here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_PvtziEfgpc

dragje said:
Interesting. Will these features be ready on the current hardware you're selling or on a new upgrade hardware version that has to come out still?

Everything we have planned will sync with the existing hardware, and we can also update the firmware from our side if something needs it. With most of the pieces, you would just need to buy the additional device or sensor, and it will be added to your network.

dragje said:
That's really cool. What is the prize for a standard set? I'll check the website as well.

The Preferred Package, which is the CubeOne CPU, 2 door/window sensors, 1 motion detector and 2 remote controls/ID tags is $199. The App is free.

dragje said:
I totally agree. And thanks for your reply, also good to read that you see competition as a good thing rather then then to bully your opponents down. You have an advantage on Canary. Still strange to see how Canary becomes a "hype" while there are good systems out there all ready by the way

We appreciate you saying so! We definitely like what we're doing, always striving to get better and more advanced while still affordable for folks that don't want the old-guard protection of wiring setup, monthly fees, and long-term contracts (of which we have none).

yozh · Aug 16, 2013

Hello

The camera kit is adding additional 150$, can we use our own camera ? Like a foscam or something like that with your kit ?

Ant0ine · Aug 16, 2013

Weaponize it and I'll buy a dozen immediately.

ZacS · Aug 16, 2013

yozh said:
Hello

The camera kit is adding additional 150$, can we use our own camera ? Like a foscam or something like that with your kit ?

Cross-compatibility is on the agenda - We don't have a set date, but it's definitely our goal (end of year or beginning of next?) to allow people to sync other pre-existing devices, like other IP cams, door/window sensors, hot plugs, etc.

iPhone-Enabled Home Security System 'Canary' Tops $1.25 Million in Funding

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