For a select few, parts of this future are already here. Since 2016, Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Palo Alto mansion has used Jarvis, an AI assistant (opens in new tab)<\/a>, to unlock doors, control lights, and deliver his ubiquitous gray T-shirts via cannon. Yves Behar, the famed industrial designer, likewise upgraded his 3,800-square-foot Cow Hollow home (opens in new tab)<\/a> with smart locks and motorized screens.<\/p>\n Behar\u2019s upgrades were bespoke, but he liked them enough that he\u2019s going into the smart-home business. In December, he and Jason Johnson, the former CEO and cofounder of smart lock company August Home, launched Doma, a startup billed as \u201cthe intelligence layer for the home.\u201d Its first products are a smart door and window, which will ship in 2027. Pricing is TBD, but as each fenestration is custom made, expect it to be premium.<\/p>\n Doma\u2019s doors will have two cameras facing outside \u2014 one to capture video, and one for facial recognition \u2014 alongside radar and motion sensors. On the indoor side, a screen will show a live video feed. The idea is for users to approve faces \u2014 say, the dog walker \u2014 so the door will open for them automatically. The windows will use sensors to measure air quality in and outside of the home and open or close as needed, as well as radar to detect occupancy and perimeter activity for security. But they won\u2019t have cameras pointed inward. \u201cPeople are not comfortable with cameras inside the home,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n Increasingly, Bay Area homeowners are interested in incorporating smart tech for safety (physical and environmental) and convenience, said Jeff Mitchell, a smart-home consultant at Audiovisions Bay Area who works with architects, designers, and builders on multimillion-dollar projects. Smart home device revenue is expected to jump 40%\u00a0from $10.7 billion in 2024 to 15 billion in 2029, according to data from Parks Associates, (opens in new tab)<\/a> a consumer tech market research firm.\u00a0 (opens in new tab)<\/a><\/p>\n Many customers opt for the full sci-fi package. \u201cA lot of clients say, \u2018Oh, my God, I want voice recognition,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to carry keys.\u201d These are high-net-worth individuals, after all, who want the experience of getting into their poolhouse to be frictionless.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also want their homes to be fortresses. Since Covid, Mitchell noted, people are more worried about personal safety at home and more willing to adopt security tech. Sauron (opens in new tab)<\/a>, a home security startup named for J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s ruler of Mordor, hopes to serve these concerns with a suite of products set to launch in 2027.<\/p>\n Founded by Kevin Hartz, cofounder of Eventbrite, and serial entrepreneur Jack Abraham, Sauron has a core package with a collection of mounted camera sensors equipped with facial recognition, LiDAR, and varifocal night vision. They create a 3D model of the home that connects to a home hub monitored round the clock by a remote team of former law enforcement officers. All of this is analyzed by predictive threat-modelingAI that scans perimeter feeds for patterns \u2014 such as a car driving by repeatedly or people lingering nearby \u2014 and pings the remote team, who can decide whether to turn on spotlights or a loudspeaker. The company is considering offering integration with the controversial<\/a> license plate tracking company Flock Safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got a lot of people excited for us to use drones, probably a little further down the road now.<\/p>\n Yvonne McLaughlin<\/p>\n The goal is to increase safety for everyone, said Yvonne McLaughlin, Sauron\u2019s head of client experience. Traditional alarms can tell you something\u2019s wrong, she said, \u201cbut it\u2019s not going to stop anything from happening.\u201d Security drones were part of the company\u2019s early pitches, but that\u2019s on pause, said McLaughlin, citing regulatory issues. \u201cOn the larger estates, it probably makes sense. I think in urban areas, it\u2019s a little harder to manage.\u201d Like Doma, pricing is TBD, but Sauron is also targeting wealthy clients as its first customers, so it won\u2019t be cheap.<\/p>\n Herman Yau, the Sunnyvale-based CEO of a facial-recognition smart door-lock startup, has taken the opposite approach. His company Durin (opens in new tab)<\/a> (named for the riddle on the Doors of Durin in \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Tolkien\u2019s \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d), hopes to make smart doors affordable for non-mansion-havers, too. \u201cWe [want] to enable a new entry price point for security markets,\u201d he said. Durin\u2019s \u201cdoor manager\u201d costs $129 and is designed to retrofit to existing locks. \u201cIt\u2019s much less friction to upgrade a lock than a door,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Durin\u2019s device uses two cues to unlock: sensing your phone is in range via ultra wide broadband technology, plus facial recognition. If you forget your phone, your voice acts as backup \u2014 \u201cour version of hiding a key under the planter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts say that though many companies have sold smart locks \u2014 remember Elecpro (opens in new tab)<\/a>? Otto? (opens in new tab)<\/a> \u2014 the difference this time is that the industry has matured and adopted shared standards, (opens in new tab)<\/a> plus, of course, the infusion of AI. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be an AI engine running in the background [of your home],\u201d Mitchell said, which will make integrating these products much easier. \u201cIn the next year, we\u2019re going to see incredibly crazy leaps forward in how our homes work.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769438049_335_-S3840x2560-FPNG.png\"\/)
A Doma smart door prototype. | Source: Peter Belanger<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769438050_22_-S3840x2560-FPNG.png\"\/)
The Doma door lock includes a LCD screen. | Source: Peter Belanger<\/p>\n