Xthings is rolling into CES with a bunch of new gear, including two new smart locks and a few smart security cameras. It’s definitely the Ultraloq Bolt Sense that’s the most intriguing of the bunch, however. It’s a relatively compact smart deadbolt that combines facial recognition with palm vein authentication for touch-free access, without resorting to an app.
While palm scanning is still relatively new to the consumer market, Xthings claims it’s more reliable than fingerprint scanning because it’s actually reading the vein pattern under your skin, so it doesn’t care if your hands are wet or dirty. And, since vein scanning uses near infrared light, it doesn’t matter if it’s pitch black out, it should still work.
The Bolt Sense has built-in Wi-Fi, and Xthings says Matter support is …
Xthings is rolling into CES with a bunch of new gear, including two new smart locks and a few smart security cameras. It’s definitely the Ultraloq Bolt Sense that’s the most intriguing of the bunch, however. It’s a relatively compact smart deadbolt that combines facial recognition with palm vein authentication for touch-free access, without resorting to an app.
While palm scanning is still relatively new to the consumer market, Xthings claims it’s more reliable than fingerprint scanning because it’s actually reading the vein pattern under your skin, so it doesn’t care if your hands are wet or dirty. And, since vein scanning uses near infrared light, it doesn’t matter if it’s pitch black out, it should still work.
The Bolt Sense has built-in Wi-Fi, and Xthings says Matter support is planned. But, since it’s not expected to ship until Q2, there’s still plenty of time to work that out. The company is also announcing the Latch 7 Pro, which should be landing sooner (in Q1), and, while it lacks fancy palm-reading tech, it will support Matter-over-Thread and Aliro.
Xthings will also be showing off the Ulticam IQ V2 at CES, its first camera with Matter support.
More interesting, though, is the Ulticam HaLow. It will be one of the first security cameras on the market to support Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah). HaLow uses sub-GHz signals for greater range and wall penetration, but at the expense of bandwidth. While Xthings doesn’t say exactly what the maximum range is for the new Ulticam, HaLow is rated for up to 0.6 miles under normal conditions. That makes it ideal for large properties. While HaLow made a bit of a splash at CES way back in 2016, it hasn’t found much success in the real world. Rather than make you worry about tracking down a specialized router, Xthings is including a dedicated hub with the Ulticam HaLow.
If you’re more worried about capturing crystal-clear video even in the darkest nights, Xthings is also launching the Ulticam IQ Floodlight, which pairs its AI-enabled security camera with 2,000-lumen floodlights. Though, you won’t get the same half-mile range with its standard Wi-Fi radio.
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- Terrence O’Brien