A New York-based startup promises to do for security what the Nest did to thermostats with Canary, an interesting looking security device packing camera, sensor array and wifi connectivity in a cylindrical shell.

The device is 15cm tall and 7cm wide and features motion, temperature, humidity and air quality sensors together with an HD camera (with night vision and wide angle lens), microphone and siren. Once placed on a shelf or plugged into a wall the Canary records and uploads data to a cloud-based service (available in either free or paid subscription flavours) users can access via web browser or smartphone app.

One features the company stresses upon is "learning"-- the device apparently "applies complex algorithms" to collected data, allowing it learn household patterns and rhythms and thus notice when a "notable event" takes place. Once such an event happens the device pushes an alert to the user account.

“Existing home security systems are costly, complicated and ineffective,” Canary co-founder Chris Rill says. “Elaborate installations and expensive contracts price most people out of the market, and two-thirds of those who do have home security solutions don’t regularly use them.”

The Canary is currently on Indiegogo for crowdfunding/preorders (where it already reached way beyond the initial $100000 goal), and the company says it has working prototypes up and running. Either way, the device should hit the market sometime during 2014.

Go Canary