As the smart home industry grows, there continues to be a better selection of devices to automate our lives. But because most of these products lack native capabilities to interact with each other, we’re stuck with multiple hubs to control everything. Momo, brought to us by Kickstarter, seeks to unite various smart home accessories into a single hub, all while introducing facial recognition, gesture control, and other new features.
If you’re familiar with smart home hubs, right off the bat you’ll notice that Momo breaks the mold of the typical design. Forgoing the standard white plastic and rectangular form factor, Momo more closely resembles an Amazon Echo or Google Home, which also sports a cylindrical design. The top portion of the casing also doubles as a multi-color LED lamp.
While this design does stand out, it’s the functionality packed within that earns Momo the spotlight. Within the hub, you’ll find the typical array of features offered by smart home devices. Security wise, you’ll be covered by a 360-degree camera with night vision for keeping an eye on your home, motion detection as well as temperature, humidity and C02 sensors to monitor air quality.
At launch, Momo will support integrations with a variety of popular smart home platforms and devices such as Philips Hue, TP-Link, Nest, Wemo, IFTTT and Ecobee. While Momo does have its own built-in voice-activated assistant, it can defer to your connected Amazon Echo or Google Home as well for controlling your home.
In terms of stand-out features, the hub offers facial recognition and gesture control to adjust brightness and set lighting scenes. Momo is also backed by an integrated battery to keep it on even if the power goes out. It also effortlessly finds existing smart home accessories on your network, making setup a breeze.
Momo is currently a few days into its Kickstarter campaign and has already secured nearly 50% of the desired goal of $50,000. With over a month still to go though, the hub can be backed at the early bird price of $279, which saves you 60% off the eventual retail price. If the campaign continues at its current rate and meets its fund goal, Momo will be shipping to backers in October.
Momo is packed with standalone security features like motion detection, facial recognition, and intelligent sound detection, and can also work with any additional security systems around the home. Thanks to a full suite of connectivity systems and an open architecture, Momo can automatically sync with and manage nearly all smart home devices, including standard appliances plugged into smart plugs. Momo employs machine learning techniques to learn user habits and environmental preferences, and suggest automations for your home to perfectly fit your life.
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