As travelers, we all too often leave our homes unoccupied and vulnerable.
Technological advances in camera design and – of course – the wonder of the increasingly omnipresent internet have allowed home security systems to evolve from their earlier 'unintelligent' audible alarms that were as often as not false, leading to frustration and potentially heavy fines from the police.
Nowadays, the best systems use high definition color video cameras, complete with sophisticated motion detection systems, and will send text messages and emails to you to provide alerts whenever motion triggers their sensors. You can then view the video, real time, on your phone or via an internet connection, see what is happening, and decide if you need to call the neighbors to let the cat out or call the police to catch a burglar in the act.
In this first part of a new series, I detail the issues and considerations you need to be aware of when deciding how to set up a home video monitoring system, where to place cameras (both inside and out), how many cameras you need, and how to fine tune the motion sensing system.
Next week the series will grow with a detailed review of one of the better video monitoring systems currently available, the Logitech Alert system.
