Real Estate, Finance and Home Articles of Interest


Nanny Cameras and Motion Detector Alarms: Maintaining Peace of Mind with a Home Security Surveillance System

by Jeffrey Parker

The last twenty years has seen the complete democratization of communication and information technologies. Gizmos with functions formerly reserved for companies with hundreds of millions in their pockets can now be found on the desks of ordinary working people. High quality nanny cameras, which capture digital footage as perfect as any camcorder, are one of the technologies to make their way out of the homes of the wealthy and award-winning and into the lounges of the world. This is also the case with door and window alarms, and with the ubiquitous motion detector alarms.

Indeed, to say that window alarms now cost about as much as a few burgers from McDonalds is really no exaggeration. You can purchase contact pads, the simple magnetic components for door and window alarms, at large hardware and department stores, often at bargain-bin prices of under five dollars. These magnetic pads form a circuit which, when broken, signals the central alarm hub and gets that siren sounding. Even for someone with little experience in terms of working with hardware, taking on the task of installing contacts as part of their home security surveillance system will probably not pose much of a hurdle. You scarcely need more than the cabling, the contacts, some wood glue and a silicone gun. This is a service you can also have done for you by the majority of security companies, though you won't get their best prices unless you've signed up to use them to monitor your alarm system.

After contacts, which form the first line of defense after locks when it comes to home security, you'll want to think about beefing up your home security surveillance system with motion detector alarms, which are generally of one of two types, and also tend to be generally cheap (think under 20 dollars). UWB detectors (the acronym stands for ultra-wideband radar) emit a radar signal across a fixed distance. If that signal echoes in a shorter than anticipated time the UWB detector will register the presence of a new object as motion, and sound the alarm.

PIR motion detector alarms are the more common variety in modern home security surveillance systems. The acronym stands for 'passive infrared', as these devices passively sit and 'stare' over a fixed distance, registering the heat of the various objects in that area. If the temperature of that area changes in just one place (rather than ambiently), the motion detector will register that as motion. These are the kinds of devices you'll typically find over peoples' front doors or driveways, used to switch on a porch or outdoor light when they sense any disturbance.

Out of all these devices, though, the potential of nanny cameras has probably grown the most. You can use them to check your house out at any time of day, by viewing their footage on your computer or cellphone. All you need to do is install them in the relevant parts of your home (which if you're actually a new parent, are those parts of the home where your baby should be), and you'll be able to tell whether the nanny's doing her job.

There is, of course, no reason you shouldn't have your entire home security surveillance system function in this manner. All you need to do is buy up a bunch of webcams and convert them into nanny cameras by putting them in common household objects and ornaments such as clocks and book-bindings. The only requirement is that your ornaments be located within reasonable proximity of a power point. The footage these makeshift nanny cameras capture can be transmitted directly to a storage cluster online, where it will remain, safe and secure, for days or weeks - the only dependency being how much you're willing to pay for the storage space. Keep in mind that an extensive home security surveillance system might require multiple terabytes of space for just a few days worth of surveillance.

Still, this is only cost-effective up to a point. Luckily, there's a simple way to get around the need for making excessively large quantities of storage space one of the costs of your home security surveillance system. All that you need to do is have you motion detector alarms and door and window alarms wired to your nanny cameras. If you set this system up in such a way that the various sensors or detectors set your home security surveillance system recording when there's movement in the house, you'll wind up eliminating the need for redundant recordings of empty rooms. You can also get cameras programmed with motion detection software to begin with - these will actuate this function without the need for any fancy fiddling on your part.

Looking to find the best deal on Home Video Surveillance, then visit www.home-security-pro.com to find the best advice on Wireless Security Cameras for you.

Published December 22nd, 2009

Filed in Home