Nest Labs Inc. has officially announced its latest smoke and carbon monoxide detector, the Nest Protect smoke alarm.
Tony Fadell, who also designed the iPod and the original iPhone while working for Apple, is the brain behind the invention of the Nest Protect. The latest smoke alarm is sleek and smart as it can differentiate between types of smoke. The smoke alarm can also be silenced just by waving at it.
The Nest Protect smoke detector is designed to sound at 85 decibel in case of an alarm and it also gives instructions out loud to leave the building immediately and to call the fire brigade. Moreover, the Nest Protect alarms can be wirelessly interconnected, which means an alarm in one room will also sound an alert in other rooms of the house.
"Every time a smoke alarm cries wolf, we trust it a little less, and then - in a moment of frustration - we rip the batteries out to stop the beeping. And that leaves us and our families at risk," said Fadell, CEO of Nest Labs Inc.
The Nest Protect is just the second Nest product after the Nest Learning Thermostat, which was launched in 2011. The Nest Learning Thermostat is a programmable and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat meant for both home and business use that optimizes heating and cooling to conserve electricity.
The Nest Protect will have a price tag of $129 per device and should go up for sale in November this year in the U.S., UK and Canada. The smoke alarm will be available via the same channels where the Nest Learning Thermostat is currently available from.
The Nest Protect alarm can also be connected to the Nest Learning Thermostat, which can act as an additional sensor to sense if someone is at home in order to adjust the temperature.
If a user connects the Nest Protect to an iPhone, the alarm can also notify in case of an emergency or when the battery is running low. Smoke alarms help people keep themselves safe in home and work environments; however, very little has changed in the smoke alarms departments.
However, as we head towards the concept of smart homes, devices such as the Nest Protect may eventually go on to become one of the vital devices required for the safety and security of a home.
