If you’ve got an existing smart home rig, motion sensors can be a useful addition to your setup. You can use them for all kinds of things, from turning on lights when you enter a room, to shutting off HVAC systems when an area is unoccupied. Typically, you’d add dedicated motion sensors to your smart home to achieve this. But what if your existing smart light bulbs could act as the motion sensors instead?
The Brightest Bulb In The Bulb Box
The most typical traditional motion sensors use passive infrared detection, wherein the sensor picks up on the infrared radiation emitted by a person entering a room. Other types of sensors include break-beam sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and cameras running motion-detection algorithms. All of these technologies can readily be used with a smart home system if so desired. However, they all require the addition of extra hardware. Recently, smart home manufacturers have been exploring methods to enable motion detection without requiring the installation of additional dedicated sensors.
Hue Are You?
Philips has achieved this goal with its new MotionAware technology, which will be deployed on the company’s new Hue Bridge Pro base station and Hue smart bulbs. The company’s smart home products use Zigbee radios for communication. By monitoring small fluctuations in the Zigbee communications between the smart home devices, it’s possible to determine if a large object, such as a human, is moving through the area. This can be achieved by looking at fluctuations to signal strength, latency, and bit error rates. This allows motion detection using Hue smart bulbs without any specific motion detection hardware required.
Using MotionAware requires end users to buy the latest Philips Hue Bridge Pro base station. As for whether there is some special magic built into this device, or if Phillips merely wants to charge users to upgrade to the new feature? Well, Philips claims the new bridge is required because it’s powerful enough to run the AI-powered algorithms that sift the radio data and determine whether motion is occurring. The tech is based on IP from a company called Ivani, which developed Sensify—an RF sensing technology that works with WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee signals.
To enable motion detection, multiple Hue bulbs must be connected to the same Hue Bridge Pro, with three to four lights used to create a motion sensing “area” in a given room. When setting up the system, the room must be vacated so the system can calibrate itself. This involves determining how the Zigbee radio signals propagate between devices when nobody—humans or animals—is inside. The system then uses variations from this baseline to determine if something is moving in the room. The system works whether the lights themselves are on or off, because the light isn’t used for sensing—as long as the bulb has power, it can use its radio for sensing motion. Philips notes this only increases standby power consumption by 1%, and a completely negligible amount while the light is actually “on” and outputting light.
There are some limitations to the use of this system. It’s primarily for indoor use, as Philips notes that the system benefits from the way radio waves bounce off surrounding interior walls and objects. Lights should also be separated from 1 to 7 meters apart for optimal use, and effectively create a volume between them in which motion sensing is most effective. Depending on local conditions, it’s also possible that the system may detect motion on adjacent levels or in nearby rooms, so sensitivity adjustment or light repositioning may be necessary. Notably, though, you won’t need new bulbs to use MotionAware. The system will work with all the Hue mains-powered bulbs that have been manufactured since 2014.
The WiZ Kids Were Way Ahead
Philips aren’t the only ones offering in-built motion sensing with their smart home bulbs. WiZ also has a product in this space, which feels coincidental given the company was acquired in 2019 by Philip’s own former lighting division. Unlike Philips Hue, WiZ products rely on WiFi for communication. The company’s SpaceSense technology again relies on perturbations in radio signals between devices, but using WiFi signals instead of Zigbee. What’s more, the company has been at this since 2022
There are some notable differences in Wiz’s technology. SpaceSense is able to work with just two devices at a minimum, and not just lights—you can use any of the company’s newer lights, smart switches, or devices, as long as they’re compatible with SpaceSense, which covers the vast majority of the company’s recent product.
Ultimately, WiZ beat Philips by years with this tech. However, perhaps due to its lower market penetration, it didn’t make the same waves when SmartSense dropped in 2022.
Radio Magic
We’ve seen similar feats before. It’s actually possible to get all kinds of useful information out of modern radio chipsets for physical sensing purposes. We’ve seen systems that measure a person’s heart rate using nothing more than perturbations in WiFi transmission over short distances, for example. When you know what you’re looking for, a properly-built algorithm can let you dig usable motion information out of your radio hardware.
Ultimately, it’s neat to see smart home companies expanding their offerings in this way. By leveraging the radio chipsets in existing smart bulbs, engineers have been able to pull out granular enough data to enable this motion-sensing parlour trick. If you’ve ever wanted your loungeroom lights to turn on when you walk in, or a basic security notification when you’re out of the house… now you can do these kinds of things without having to add more hardware. Expect other smart home platforms to replicate this sort of thing in future if it proves practical and popular with end users.
Passive radar for the den? Clever and useful, but does it work in home assistant? So as to not go the way of the Logitech buttons?
Am i the only one squinting eyes with the bulb?
Yes, but you could try turning up the brightness, it is a feature of smart bulbs.
lol I mean with the cover image of the article :) I think is more like a reflex, same as we (as men) give a second glance to a mannequin just to say ah! its a mannequin!
could you have said this any creepier?
No , I mean female human figure is a must watch for a man ,and I mean at genetic level, so no, when you catch a female figure formed mannequin with the corner of the eye, there is a big probability that you make a second watch and then you think somethink like oh! false positive!
THE ONLY CREEPY HERE IS YOU.
Talk for yourself, we are not doing that. You are doing that.
we? you cannot talk in the name of the HaD community. Anyway I guess people walk in the street with tunnel vision these days :), maybe they are so busy looking the phone. Easy targets. Anyway going back to my casual, spontaneous, non-belligerent comment ,yeah! I squinting eyes when I saw the image of the bulb! then I tought something like wth I”m doing :)
Gee, as if uploading the layout of my house to amazon through my roomba wasn’t bad enough, soon the exact position of my body will be on someone’s servers in real time too.
Well one could always use one’s mouse sensor to listen in on your conversations.
That’s total BS. Not only can optical mice not do that (and spend their entire lives face down into a desk), but they’re attached to a computer which would have to be hacked into first.
This is something that is designed from the get-go to be owned, operated, and to forward everything to the company mothership. Not even remotely comparable.
I love when people knee jerk.
Here’s your BS:
https://hoodline.com/2025/10/ai-turns-popular-gaming-mouse-sensors-from-sunnyvale-company-into-microphones/
I love it when people use irrelevant info to make their argument and think they’re smarter than those in the “know”.
VS.
A minuscule subset of mice does not lend any credibility to your massively overly broad claim.
Wouldn’t have to be hacked, manufacturer just needs to dangle the carrot of “reprogrammable buttons or customizing your mouse RGB LED pattern through our closed source proprietary software package”
Exactly.
Soon? Hahaha it already was a decade ago
“as if uploading the layout of my house to amazon through my roomba wasn’t bad enough”
That reminds me of the outstanding X-Files episode about an over-dependence on automation where that was shown:
Season 11 Episode 7: “Rm9sbG93ZXJz” received very positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10 based on 14 reviews. In December 2018, TV Guide ranked “Rm9sbG93ZXJz” as #23 in the 25 Best Episodes of TV in 2018, saying “‘Rm9xbG93ZXJz’ was a reminder of what X-Files used to be: insightful, terrifying and little bit playful.”
Just build your own. Then you are in control and would be built/run just the way you/I want it. Why buy? I thought that is what people do here :) ?
Espressif has already built this.
https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-techpedia/en/latest/esp-friends/solution-introduction/esp-csi/esp-csi-solution.html
https://github.com/espressif/esp-csi
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ui4y1o7fz/
It is being added to standard as 802.11bf
https://www.nist.gov/publications/ieee-80211bf-enabling-widespread-adoption-wi-fi-sensing
https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935175
How easy is it to grab nuanced data about WiFi signal strength from, say an ESP8266 or an ESP32? I’m interested in using such data to triangulate a signal for a device that lacks GPS. The fact that things stepping in the way of the signal are detectable is an added bonus.
a few weeks ago they had a similar project using an esp32, so apparently it doesn’t need specialized wifi hardware https://hackaday.com/2025/09/05/heart-rate-monitoring-via-wifi/
keep in mind that it’s easy to oversell the information they’re getting. once you know there is a heartbeat, and you have a stream of data from the wifi, you can correlate them and essentially calibrate the wifi as a heartbeat detector. but there’s not a straightforward way to go from a stream of wifi error rates of unknown provenance to knowing exactly what kind of implicit information it contains.
You may also be keenly interested in this project, found at GitHub at:
https://github.com/schollz/find3
I am in no way associated with this project. Just a happy end-user.
For WiFi this nuanced data is called Channel State Information (CSI). This data is typically only handled in WiFi Module Firmware. You will need modified firmware to pass this data to userspace, since normal firmware uses it to optimize connectivity and “throws it away” afterwards.
Luckily the ESP32 is pretty well supported. It is also commonly used in research. Here is a github repo to get you started: https://github.com/espressif/esp-csi
Never had much luck with the wiz bulbs. They need to be a fair distance apart from each other (like, across the room) and will struggle if they’re in metallic light fittings/shades (unsurprisingly). I have a couple of them in pendants over a dining room table. Reliable for basic smart bulb stuff but no dice on the motion sensing. Also they need to be setup through the wiz app. Motion sensing stuff isnt exposed through matter.
this is a ‘neat’ idea, but not a very wise choice to attempt to implement.
if you want motion sensing, use an actual motion sensor (of any variety).
it’s be cheaper, more effective and not limited to what some other company allows you to do, or their plans for obsolescence or subscriptions.
+1
This is dumb. I literally do HA and smart shit in new homes – how many normal, off the self bulbs do you think new homes have? This one place I’m doing has almost nothing but strips.
Great for people with old homes, but even my 1960s apartment has (ugly) LED replacement fixtures that use strips. I have two lamps with two Wiz each, in the corner of bedroom and living room. So I am almost the ideal customer being in an old home and I still couldn’t use it.
I still think it’s cool that they’re doing it though, I wish I could play with it on my Wiz but they’re probably too old and apparently it was discontinued anyway
The great thing about strips and other built-in LEDs is that they don’t last very long, or stay the same color/brightness indefinitely, so they eventually start to bug people off with poor light – or they may just die with a single lightning strike nearby, or from poor power quality in general. Bonus points if the fixture is built and installed so that the owner is either unable, unwilling, or legally not allowed to touch it themselves – so they get to hire you to do it.
No more replacing bulbs – just pay 10x as much for the handyman to come around every 5-6 years and install brand new lights.
There are already light bulbs with embedded PIR or radar sensors on the market.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/globe-motion-sensor-smart-adjustable-colour-bulb-0522136p.html
Linksys did this years ago with their velop mesh system, still cool to see it done with less sophisticated wireless.
Yes, I guess that is a logical merging of a smart bulb with a motion detection bulb (which will likely also have dusk-dawn light sensor too, might as well integrate that into the smart messaging).
I hate smart stuff and motion detection is a PITA when you want the light on all the time so just went with a plain dusk-to-dawn bulb for my new outdoor lights.
Now you won’t be able to hide from the SkyNet drones.