Meet Japanese Companies with Quality
Home Security for All Secual, Inc. IP
Website: Secual, Inc.
Category: Others
Secual offers affordable, easy to set up, easy to use home security for everyone
Secual, Inc. lets you check up on your home from anywhere. The company’s affordable and efficient home security system uses acceleration sensors connected to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wi-Fi to send notifications directly to smartphones, keeping users up-to-date on the status of their home regardless of where they are.
“We wanted to make a business out of finding innovative technology that ties in with solving social problems,” says Secual COO Naoki Nishida.
Spun off from strategy and IT consulting firm IGNITIONPOINT, Inc. in 2015, Secual’s home security system is indeed innovative: it won a Good Design Award in its first year, and picked up an Audience Award at the Microsoft Innovation Awards just a year later.
Components of the Secual home security system, including the gateway unit (center) and sensors.
Practical Home Security
In conventional home security systems, a pair of magnets installed in a window or door and its frame will set off an alarm when the two magnets are separated. However, a forced entry is only detected if a window or door is opened conventionally, not broken. By contrast, Secual sensors on doors and windows detect vibration or impact resulting from a break-in attempt, reacting to the intensity of the movement based on user settings.
These sensors are connected via BLE to a “gateway” device plugged into a wall socket. When movement is detected, the sensors notify the gateway, which emits a loud alarm and relays a message to an app on the user’s smartphone. The app can even be set up to share status updates to all members of a family via email or automated call.
The Secual app home screen, notification screen, alert screen and settings screen; courtesy of Secual, Inc.
This patent-pending system can be activated, monitored and adjusted using the Secual app. Users can connect multiple gateway devices to their accounts, with each gateway controlling up to 10 sensors, while user settings and machine learning enable Secual’s system algorithms to continuously improve calibration.
Affordable & Accessible
Blending into the background of any home, Secual’s system is designed for easy use by anyone. It can be ordered online, is simple to install, and at only about ¥10,000 (roughly US$95), comes at a fraction of the cost of a typical security system – with monthly subscriptions starting around only ¥1,000. While the company initially manufactured just 1,000 units, Secual now has plans for mass production in the face of steadily increasing demand.
The company has its sights on expanding internationally as well. With China set as Secual’s next big market, the company is seeking investor support in creating channels for sales, funding and joint product development. Looking to the future, it further aims to integrate its services with other Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices such as cameras and smart locks to create an increasingly robust yet easy-to-maintain security system.
Secual, Inc. has won both a Good Design Award and a Microsoft Innovation Award.
“What we wanted to achieve regarding home security was finding ways to innovate,” says Nishida. With his highly successful, award-winning system, it would seem he has done exactly that.
Based on interview in October 2016
Secual, Inc. COO Naoki Nishida.
Website: Secual, Inc.
