What’s happening in your house right now? Perhaps the cat is climbing your curtains, or your young son is playing catch in a room full of ornaments. There might even be an open window, inviting intruders.
If you’re home, you can sort all of these things out. But if you’re out of the house, you wouldn’t usually be aware of them, and therefore be unable to deal with the various dangers and incidents that are likely to occur.
To find out what is happening, you’ll need to set up a remote video surveillance system, and some means of viewing what is happening. There’s a good chance that you have an Internet connected smartphone, so that’s the viewing arranged. But what solutions can you use to setup video surveillance in your home, and once you’ve done this, what should you be looking at?
1. Pair Your Webcam with Your Phone
Perhaps the easiest option is to use one or more webcams connected to your PC. SKJM’s iCam is probably the best product out there at the moment, which facilitates the easy connectivity between a desktop computer (Windows or Mac camera servers can be downloaded from the iCam website) and an Android or iPhone/iPadmobile device.
While the desktop app is free, the mobile clients will set you back $5, but once setup, you’ll be able to observe what is taking place on your webcam on your smart device.
Several other tools are also available for creating a remote video surveillance system with your PC webcam.
2. Use an Old Smartphone
If relying on your PC’s webcam is impractical (perhaps the USB cable isn’t long enough to position the camera as you prefer), why not use one or more old smartphones?
These days, pretty much every electronic device comes with a camera, and by taking advantage of the camera on your old smartphone you can keep an eye on your property from afar. Whether your drawer hides an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or even an old Windows Mobile device, you should be able to find a suitable app to stream what the camera captures, and watch it remotely.
Our guide to building a security camera network out of old smartphones explains this in more detail.
3. Split Personality Action Cam
If you like to record footage of yourself skiing, skateboarding or some other exciting outdoor pursuit, and prefer to fund that sort of pastime rather than in securing your home — but reckon the latter is probably a really good idea — then perhaps consider the FLIR FX.
Unbelievably, this is a streaming security camera that actually doubles as an action cam! With up to 160 degrees of capture and 1080p recording, the camera can also display things you don’t see with the naked eye, such as temperature and humidity.
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