Smart home control via facial recognition

Sense uses facial recognition and computer learning to control household devices and appliances.

As more and more household devices become connected thanks to the Internet of Things, a market is opening up for devices that can control all appliances at once. We have already seen a smart remote that ‘captures’ favorite home settings, and a point-and-shoot master remote to control a variety of devices. Silk Lab’s new device Sense will enhance the smart home experience further, via facial recognition and intelligent machine learning.

Sense runs a powerful platform – Silk – for digitally connected devices. It operates an artificial intelligence program that can detect a user’s presence, voice and gestures, and learn their behaviors and habits. Sense learns what lights and music users want turned on. It will also learn who is in the house using facial recognition, and react accordingly. Sense adds a secure remote video feed for users’ home and only allows trusted smartphones to connect to it.

Sense is different from other household programs as it runs locally, rather than in the cloud, which the founders believe makes the product more secure and private. The device comes from the creators of Firefox OS, and its Silk program, based on JavaScript, is designed to be developer-friendly, enabling coders and programmers to create custom apps.

The company is planning to start shipping Sense later this year, and is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, where they have already surpassed their goal and raised over USD 150,000.

How else can developers make the Internet of Things more practical for everyday use?