A few years ago, Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Hue, acquired up a competitor: WiZ. To our surprise, the brand was not simply buried afterwards, but continued. Last year alone, WiZ introduced numerous new lamps and luminaires. These are not directly compatible with Philips Hue, rely on a WiFi connection and usually cost a little less.
The public details of the WiZ Indoor Camera
This year, Signify seems to want to take a completely new step with WiZ. A few weeks ago, documents surfaced at the American regulatory authority FCC with the title WiZ Indoor Camera. The name alone of this possible product is self-explanatory. There is no official information on the camera so far, but this graphic from the FCC portal is sufficient.
What exactly Signify intends to do with the camera is, of course, still open. First and foremost, of course, it will serve its purpose and monitor a room – like the Eve Cam, for example, which you can see on the cover picture. It is obvious that you can follow the current camera image via app or access recordings of events.
Lighting control is obvious
It is also obvious that you will be able to use the WiZ Indoor Camera to control the light, more or less as a replacement for a motion detector.
This idea is also not new; Philips Hue could already be linked with cameras from Nest several years ago. In the meantime, Google has unfortunately deactivated the interfaces, but at the time the story looked like this:
What impact will this have on Philips Hue?
I would be very surprised if the WiZ Indoor Camera could be connected to Philips Hue in a direct way, similar to how it went with the Nest Cam back in the day. Signify has simply kept the two brands too strictly separate for that.
But I can imagine that the WiZ Indoor Cam could be something like a trial run. So it will be interesting to see what the year 2023 will bring…
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EU Wiz smatbulbs have dual connectivity with WiFi and Bluetooth, which happens to be the specification needed to be a Matter certified device. So, integration between Hue and Wiz systems should be possible once both are updated to be Matter enabled.