Shelly’s Presence Gen4 sensor has arrived in the US, months after its European launch. It uses radar instead of a camera to track who’s in a room, and costs $84.99 (around £63).
It follows Shelly’s $50 (around £37) subscription-free security camera, which launched in the US last month.
The mmWave radar picks up people and pets even when they’re sitting completely still, and The Verge reports that the Presence Gen4 can track up to 10 people at once in a single space.
With no camera, there’s no footage, which makes the sensor a better fit for bathrooms, bedrooms and home offices, where most people wouldn’t want video monitoring.
Detection zones and automation triggers
The sensor has a 140-degree horizontal field of view and covers spaces of up to 42 square metres, with up to 10 detection zones that can be set up independently.
Zones let automations respond to specific spots rather than the whole room. Heating, cooling, lights or music can come on when someone sits at their desk, and switch off again when they leave.
Sensitivity controls let you choose whether pets are detected and ignore objects close to the ground, so a robot vacuum doesn’t turn the lights on.
There’s also a light sensor that reports whether a room is dark, at twilight or bright, so lighting automations can take daylight into account rather than reacting to occupancy alone.
Setup, compatibility and availability
The compact sensor can sit on a shelf or table on its built-in stand, or be mounted on a wall. Either way, it needs to be near a power source for its USB-C cable.
It connects over Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 LE, Zigbee 3.0 and Matter over Wi-Fi, so it works with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant and Samsung SmartThings.
In the US, the Presence Gen4 is available now from Shelly’s online store.
UK buyers don’t need to wait. The sensor has been on sale in Europe since April and is already stocked by UK retailers including The Pi Hut, where it costs £67.10.
