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Government regulators said that they have approved Nest Labs' plans to fix a feature in its smoke alarms that could prevent them from sounding immediately.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the online fix provided by the firm fixes the issue - and the company aid it plans to put the Nest Protect back on sale 'within weeks'.

The high-tech home monitoring device company, which was acquired this year by Google for $3.2 billion, halted all new sales of the alarms in April after recognizing the problem.

The $129 Nest Protect sensor, which was pulled from sale today after the firm admitted a wave of the hand could switch it off under some circumstances

The company announced last month that it would offer an electronic update to disable this feature.

It has not received any related reports of incidents, injuries or property damage, it said.

Nest says the device must be connected to the Internet and linked to an account for an automatic update.

Consumers whose devices are already connected should confirm receipt of the update by going to "Nest Sense" on their account and ensuring the button for "Nest Wave" is set to off and grayed out.

Those who have not connected their devices to a wireless network and a Nest account should do so.

Test founds users could potentially turn off the sensor unintentionally with a wave of the hand.

The firm warned existing users to switch off the 'gesture control' feature while it worked on a fix.

Nest co-founder and Chief Executive Tony Faddell said that, under a unique set of circumstances the alarm's 'Nest Wave' feature, which allows a user to switch off the device with a wave of the hand, could be inadvertently activated.

Faddell, one of the creators of Apple Inc's iPod, apologized in the blogpost for a problem that was discovered during recent laboratory testing.

He added that no customer had complained so far.

'We observed a unique combination of circumstances that caused us to question whether the Nest Wave could be unintentionally activated,' he wrote.

'This could delay an alarm going off if there was a real fire,' he said.

'The fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately.'

He did not specify that set of circumstances.

The sensor can be controlled with an app - or by gesture control

The firm proudly showed off the gesture feature at launch - but will now disable it

Nest will immediately disable the Wave feature - one of many innovative design elements that has won the company and its devices acclaim - in all smoke alarms that are WiFi-connected while it works on a software update to fix the possible defect.

It said the fix, plus regulatory approvals, could take two to three months to complete.

Customers without WiFi-connected devices should either disable it or return it for a full refund, the company added.

Nest halted all sales of its smoke alarms to prevent customers from buying a device that would need an immediate software patch.

Google announced plans in January to acquire Nest via its second largest deal, to expand into a broader array of devices and bring valuable hardware design expertise in-house.

Nest gained a large following with its first thermostat - a round, brushed-metal device with a convex screen that displays temperature and changes hue to match the color of the wall it attaches to.

Nest gained a large following with its first thermostat - a round, brushed-metal device with a convex screen that displays temperature and changes hue to match the color of the wall it attaches to.

It also tracks usage and uses that data to automatically set heating and cooling temperatures.

Google referred requests for comment to Nest.