By wiring its smart doorbell to the transformer and door chime in an existing doorbell, Skybell can run its motion sensor, two-way audio, and camera with wide-angle lens on 10 volts of power. Skybell’s on-board battery trickles power from the existing home infrastructure so users will never have to charge the device.

Skybell was developed in the summer of 2013 as a way to remotely see who is at your front door. Pressing the doorbell button activates a camera, which sends video to a smartphone app and allows for communication between users and visitors. Its first generation device raised more than US$592,000 on Indiegogo and a recently shipped second-gen device now includes a lower-power Wi-Fi chip and on-demand video that allows the doorbell to act more like a surveillance system.

Engineers have also developed an adapter for digital doorbells, which hold power longer enabling it to play a digitized song. A small circuit board screwed into the digital doorbell adapter converts Skybell’s power management mode to shorten the power needed to play a chime.

Additional video recording features that use a small amount of on-board memory will be available in the next few weeks. Co-founder Andrew Thomas hopes Skybell will morph into a “really intelligent sensor at your front door that can tell your whole smart home hub what to do” – from turning on lights when someone approaches the door, to voice and facial recognition and response.