Creative Wireless Webcam Installations

This week several people asked us if we’d seen the video or heard about the Boynton Beach, Florida woman who saw her house being broken into via webcam.  She called 911 while the burglary was occurring, stayed on the phone with the operator while police responded and was rewarded with the satisfaction of watching the alleged burglars get arrested and police enter the house from the webcam on her desk.

Webcam Captures Break In

In subsequent interviews, the subject was asked what triggered her to check her webcam while at work.  The family had suffered an earlier break-in and the webcams were purchased in response.  After several weeks of checking and watching on a regular basis, the homeowner said she didn’t check again from work for three weeks.  On the day of the break-in, she had a funny feeling, logged in and happened to catch the burglary through sheer fortune.

Webcams are regular features in our security installations but useful only if you’re alerted at the proper time and occasion to see the feed.  If a webcam system will be part of your security solution, so should motion detectors.  We calibrate the detectors with the home automation system to send a text or email message immediately if motion is sensed when the system is armed.  In addition to notifying your alarm company if you’ve contracted with a service provider, you can tune into your webcams remotely to check and see what’s going on.

But I want to expand the notion of the functionality and usefuness of wireless webcams in home automation solutions.  They can do so much more than be used for security.  Below are several creative solutions/ideas for integrating wireles webcams into your system:

1.  Front Door Cam - I like to know who’s at the door before I open the door.  And I want my kids to know too.  A front door cam can trigger a pop-out window if watching television downstairs - the window within a window can show who’s at the front door if a motion sensor is also placed at the front door.  I can also check at any of our touchscreen interfaces in the house.   If it’s someone unknown to me or my kids at a suspicious time, we can handle it appropriately.

2.  Pet Cam - We love our pets in the Seattle area and several customers have inquired about webcams that would allow them to check-in and see what pets who are allowed to roam free in the home are doing while the owners are away.  This is especially useful if there’s pet “monkey business” going on while you’re away or you’re working with a specialist on a behavior issue and need to see the behavior that’s occurring when you’re not around.  The beauty of a wireless webcam is it’s portability - experiment with different locations until you capture the footage of Fido that you need!

3.  Weather Cam - Got a place at the beach, the mountains or Eastern Washington, planning to visit this weekend and wondering what weather conditions you’ll drive into?  Set up a wireless webcam to enjoy and monitor weather conditions at second homes.  This is useful if you need to coordinate maintenance with a caretaker or property management company.

4.  Baby Cam - You hear some whimpering and movement on the baby monitor but the audio is only half the story?  Anyone who’s raised children from infancy and worked through the process of teaching children to sleep alone can appreciate that seeing as well as hearing infants and young children is very helpful.  Can Baby settle him or herself back down or do you need to offer some care and comfort?  For older children, when it’s Lights Out, do they stay out or is there some  playing/reading/delaying the inevitable going on instead?

All of these examples are positive and creative web-cam uses.  Hestia Network doesn’t advocate using web-cams in such a way that brings us closer to Big Brother and a future where we’re constantly spying on each other.  We enjoy our web-cams but don’t substitute surveillance for positive and personal relationships with our children and neighbors.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Remote Access, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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