Belkin’s WeMo moves to windows, doors, people, and even water usage tracking

Home automation is expected to be an area that kicks off in a big way this year, and the field is moving beyond WiFi lightbulbs as one of the biggest providers of the tech, Belkin, takes its wireless home concept into more places.

“2015 is the year that WeMo will get even smarter, with our simple, easy to use sensors taking the first step towards full, anticipatory home automation that responds and reacts without direct human input,” said Ohad Zeira, Director of Product Management for WeMo at Belkin.

“CES is the biggest coming out party of the year for WeMo and provides the best opportunity to showcase the full breadth of the WeMo ecosystem and just how deep we are ingrained in the Internet of Things.”

For the 2015 showcase of what WeMo can do, Belkin is demonstrating more than just a light that can switch on and off using your mobile phone, which is something Australia had delivered to shelves at the end of last year.

More than just a light above your head, Belkin’s efforts this year will let you find out who is at home, if windows and doors are closed, and how much water you’re using.

Belkin's wireless tracking keychain fob

For tracking people, Belkin will add to its WeMo line-up with a Keychain Sensor (F7C039) and a Room Motion Sensor (F7C041), with the former showing you who has arrived or left home based on its presence appearing or disappearing on the home network, while the motion sensor will track a 90 degree field of view and tell you if anyone has entered a room, even talking to devices like the WeMo Light bulb to switch on lights as movement is detected.

Doors and windows will be tracked as well (F7C038) based on open and close states, so that if someone opens a window, you can receive a notification.

Alternatively, if a window or door is left open and the WeMo has been setup to talk to an air conditioning unit, the two gadgets can have a basic conversation and stop the AC from running when the window or door is open for an extended period of time. An alarm sensor (F7C040) will also exist to tell you if someone is breaking in, while also offering different states for gas leaks of possible fire alarms.

Belkin's door and window sensors takes the familiar alarm sensor design used by many security systems and adds WeMo connectivity.

But one WeMo concept really has our attention, and that’s the upcoming water sensor, which will tap into water pipes in the home to measure pressure changes and vibrations to determine water consumption and find leaks.

Unfortunately, pricing and availability isn’t known on any of these at this time, part and parcel with the whole CES shtick, but Belkin’s Australian arm suggests we’ll see more about these including local RRPs in the second half of 2015, and given that it took practically the end of the year to see the lightbulb, we’d suggest an October or November date is likely for these gadgets.