Sengled Snap: Webcam in a lightbulb!
This week I've been testing Sengled's "Snap" which is the world's first webcam-in-a-light-bulb. That's right, if you've got a light socket, you can now install a wireless weather or security webcam. Here's what it looks like installed on my front porch (day and night):
The "smart" light bulb is very easy to install -- you literally screw in the bulb, install the app, and follow directions in the app. Then, you can control or schedule the bulb's brightness, set up motion detection on the camera, and view the camera live.
It's actually meant to be used in a floodlight socket, but I don't have one of those so I screwed it in to a regular porch light bulb socket (I did have to disassemble the light's housing due to the size of the bulb). While this view is fine for my purposes, it could cause trouble with their soon-to-be-added object recognition algorithms (example from their website shown below).
Sengled was one of the first companies to announce object recognition, and when it rolls into the app soon, it will be able to identify moving people, pets, cars and even bicycles!
The camera is 1080p HD and you can save movies from the app to your phone. Since I'm an old-school gadget guy, I'm always disappointed when I can't view the camera on the web, but I understand that most traffic is on mobile phones now and that web is secondary. It is something they are looking to launch soon.
I found the video stream to be very good, although like any cloud camera, the better your WiFi and Internet connection is, the better your video stream will be when it goes from the camera over the WiFi, to their servers, and back over WiFi or 3G to your phone). Here's an example motion-detection video:
The retail price of $149 might be the most expensive light bulb you'll ever buy, but it's half of what some cloud cameras cost -- and the resolution is higher. With a cloud account (free trial or $3.99/mo for 24 hours) you can review the footage from previous hours or days.
Snap has a microphone, so you can use it to speak to people outside your house without them entering. You can also control and schedule the brightness (not just on/off) of the bulb, and if it's off, it has good IR night vision. Another neat feature is their "Discover" service -- you can choose to make your Snap feed public, and browse through other public cameras.
And this isn't the only product from Sengled, they also have smart bulbs, audio bulbs, and wi-fi extender bulbs! Here's more from StormChaser Ron:
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