Guide · Technology
Privacy by Design: How a Sun-Tracking Mirror Runs Locally
A device that reflects sunlight has a hard job beyond aiming: it must never steer the redirected sunlight into anyone's eyes. The obvious route there runs through image recognition - and therefore through an image sensor in your own garden. The ohoya heliostat takes a different route: it solves the job geometrically and computes locally.
The problem: safety usually means a camera
To keep a sunbeam off faces, a system usually needs to know where people are - typically solved with a camera streaming video to a cloud or at least to a chip inside the device for analysis. For a product that lives on your terrace and looks toward your home, that's a hard compromise to justify.
The answer: geometry instead of image recognition
The ohoya Heliostat solves this differently: glare protection is built in; separately, the mirror is slightly convex, so no focal point exists by design. The device itself needs no camera for any of this.
Four layers that keep it private
- Image sensor: none. There is nothing on the heliostat that could record an image.
- Glare protection: three measures, not one. The slightly convex mirror shape and built-in glare protection work together with the placement guidance you follow when you set it up - two of them sit in the device, the third one is yours.
- Set up once, from your phone. Setup runs through your phone's camera, not the device's.
- An additional thermal sensor. A discreet, imageless sensor (AMG8833) on the device front.
Why local control does more than protect your privacy
Because the sun's position is computed locally from clock, date, GPS and compass, the heliostat doesn't need the internet to do its core job. That means no account to create, no server outage that can break it, and no ongoing data outflow. Local control is also faster and keeps working if your connection drops. (New to the concept? Start with what a heliostat is.)
Real daylight, engineered to stay private
The ohoya heliostat protects against glare through its geometry and runs locally on your Wi-Fi - internet optional. Reserve from €49, fully creditable and refundable at any time.
Not sure how much sun your window gets? The free Sun Check works it out for your location. Or join the waitlist for every milestone update.
This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
Note: the ohoya Heliostat is in pre-series development. Stated safety characteristics are development goals and are verified per EN 62471 before public marketing.