Hi guys!
We are super happy to finally announce what we have been working for most of this year. My co-founder and I were both huge drone enthusiasts and we wanted to build an outdoor home security system that didn't require us to install and wire a bunch of cameras. We wanted the camera to go where the action is and give you the best point of view, instead of being fixed on the house it is trying to protect.
As we started developing it, it turned out that the more complicated part of the system wasn't the drone, but the ground sensors that would need to identify unusual activity and summon the drone when appropriate. Not only do the sensors need to be smart about detecting what is happening on your property, but they also need to work together as a network to reduce false positive, determine direction of motion, and to act as a navigational beacon for the drone.
We raised a round of funding from General Catalyst, and we started building.
And today we are happy to announce that we have a set of working systems, detecting what is going on and an autonomous drone that takes of and flies itself to the location it wants to investigate and streams back live video (and returns home and lands)
Our next step is to build up interest and to being manufacturing. This is why today we are announcing the product and opening up reservations.
Happy to answer any questions.
-Alex
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@alexpach Looks awesome! A couple of questions: since the lights don't look like they're secured to anything, what's to stop someone plucking them out of the dirt or throwing something over the sensor?
How do I sign up to your list to stay updated?
@germancastano It charges inductively in the housing where it lives. We are still working on the ID for it, and will release more details about it later.
@sboldog We're still developing the navigation system and hardware, so we can't comment on final numbers and performance. But I can say from our experience that range is much less of an issue for typical sensors in lights, than is false positives from things like car headlights, dappled sunshine — stay tuned for more details as we get closer to production.
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@songcarver this is a project I'd love to be a part of
@ned_desmond We're working to make it as quiet as possible, but the powerful spotlights on it will definitely make it obvious to any person who is in view of the camera.
I think this is the coolest thing I've seen today! Makes me think of a roomba but for home security for some reason. Any way to add more lights? How do you deal with potential blindspots? @alexpach@songcarver
@davidsfeng@alexpach We're planning for the system to be very easily extendible. RE: blind spots, since Sunflower Smart Lights don't require power, it's easy to place them where you want them. Also, they have multiple sensors including sound and footstep (vibration), which makes the system more robust.
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Very cool! I own a private security company in California and the first thing I thought of is commercial use. How cool would that be to offer this service to shopping centers, apartment complexes, and warehouses! Would something like this work in a commercial environment?
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