The Connectivity Standards Alliance is not only responsible for the Matter smart home standard, but also takes care of the Zigbee protocol. This technology is used by numerous smart home devices to communicate with each other, including the Philips Hue Bridge and the numerous Philips Hue lamps. A new Zigbee function has now been officially announced: Ambient Sensing.
Not much is yet known about Zigbee Ambient Sensing. The Connectivity Standards Alliance has mentioned the new function for the first time in a short YouTube video. The description of the video states:
Turn millions of Zigbee devices into presence sensors overnight with a simple firmware upgrade to support new use cases such as autonomous lighting and advanced security without buying extra hardware. Zigbee intelligent sensing creates precise detection zones to optimize privacy and deliver convenience without adding motion/occupancy sensors in every room.
What sounds quite exciting is that different detection zones can be created depending on the placement of the Zigbee devices in a room. In principle, a room can even be divided into several zones so that different areas are covered.
Philips Hue is already working on integration
Over a year ago, I reported that Philips Hue wanted to turn its names into motion sensors. Now there seems to be movement in the story, as Zigbee Ambient Sensing is precisely the building block on which the new function is likely to be based.
According to the information available to me, the Philips Hue function requires at least three light sources in a room, which must be placed at a certain distance and in a suitable shape. A permanent power supply to the light sources is of course essential. It should also be possible to set the intensity of the motion detection.
It is not known if and when Philips Hue will integrate the new Zigbee Ambient Sensing. So far, there has been no official announcement on this topic. However, the matter is not entirely “new” for Philips Hue and the manufacturer Signify, as the second in-house brand WiZ already offers a similar function with SpaceSense, albeit based on WiFi.