One sphere to rule them all! Gesture-controlled system connects all your gadgets to turn you house into 'smart home'

The age of the smart home is well and truly upon us, but keeping track of all the different devices in a house can be difficult.

That’s where Ninja Sphere comes in - the system is intended to monitor all aspects of a home and sync them with various devices, according to the Daily Mail.

By tracking location and environment, the designers say Ninja Sphere can give the user intelligent control over a smart home.

Australian company Ninja Blocks, based in Sydney, have now started accepting pre-orders for their Ninja Sphere system following a successful Kickstarter campaign, with delivery due in October this year.

Using GPS, Zigbee, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) it is able to detect devices and create a ‘map’ of them in a home.

Through an app it can then sync with a phone or other devices to control them all.

The brain of the entire system is the Spheramid, £180 ($305), which acts as a central hub for different devices in the home.

Around the house the user then needs to place contact, motion and temperature sensors supplied by the company, known as ‘Smart Sockets’.

There can be configured with other services such as Nest, Philips Hue and Dropcam.

Tiny devices known as a Waypoints also need to be placed around the house, which will allow the Ninja Sphere to locate things.

This means, for example, it could show you where pets are in the house if they have a small Bluetooth-enabled collar.

Ninja Sphere an open source modified version of Ubuntu Linux to operate.

Using a phone or smartwatch, the central Ninja Sphere hub can then control other aspects of a home.

For example, while watching the TV Ninja Sphere could alert a user on-screen if their phone is ringing in another room, and even tell them where it is.

Or while out of the house it could send a message to a phone that items are being moved while the owner is not there - suggesting an intruder might be in the home.

The device also has gesture-recognition software so, for instance, by waving a hand over the device the volume of music in a room could be altered.

Or simply tapping the device could turn lights on and off.

It’s not especially cheap at the moment, however: It costs £180 ($305) for one Spheramid, in addition to the other sensors that are needed.

And the company also recommends that at least one Spheramid is need for every floor of a home for it to work properly.

Two per floor are needed if the house is especially big.

‘Your Ninja Sphere learns about you, and your environment,' says the company.

'It uses data from sensors and actuators to build a model that can inform you if something is out of place.’

‘It can monitor temperature, lighting, energy usage, you and your pets' presence, and anything else you connect to your sphere.

‘By using data from your devices, environment, and location your sphere is able to advise you intelligently and give you control only when you need it.'