Security Cameras

In the first few years of the 21st century, a market began to emerge for home security systems that could be set up and monitored by the householder without expensive contracts to third party security companies. As the number of households with always-on high speed broadband connections increased, so did the complexity and power of these systems.

A budget of a few hundred dollars today can buy a sophisticated indoor camera that can be controlled from a web browser, even from a smart phone, can pan, tilt and zoom and provides high quality, live, color footage. The internet bridges a gap once filled by a security provider charging yearly fees. Some of these cameras are no longer passive, but actively inform their owners by text message or email if they detect movement.

Even on a limited budget it is possible to install a camera if the need arises. Just ask Jeannine Campbell of Florida. After a father noticed his son had a black eye, he installed a black and white camera to monitor Campbell while she babysat his son. The camera captured an attack that led to Campbell’s arrest on charges of assault against a minor.

Some complete systems can nowadays be purchased for less than a hundred dollars, and advertise that they can be set up within ten minutes. Black and white or even color cameras that can be mounted anywhere from overlooking a window to viewing a porch are connectable directly to televisions that switch over the moment the camera picks up activity; door entry phones with cameras are available for the elderly or infirm to be able to see the person at the door before they answer it.

New parents can monitor their sleeping babies by using systems costing less than one hundred and fifty dollars that provide black and white surveillance of the nursery, and are capable of seeing in low light or even total darkness. Often the cameras have microphones built in as well, with the receiving viewers capable of relaying the smallest cry or whimper baby might emit. These systems provide new parents with a method of keeping track of babies needs without risking disturbing the sleeping infant by going in and out of the nursery.

The prevalence of home cameras, however, can be turned against the police. More and more often narcotics officers have to meticulously plan raids on premises suspected of growing or dealing in drugs, as these houses generally have sophisticated cameras pointing through windows covering as many possible approaches to the premises as possible. It is an ongoing battle for police forces to be able to enter a premises before they are spotted and lose the element of surprise.
Apartment buildings have installed cameras to monitor their lobbies. In some cities the local cable company provides a channel within the building that residents can switch their televisions to when the door phone rings, to see who is in the lobby before they unlock the door.

Videophones have begun to appear on the market, and online systems like Skype have for many years allowed parties with web cameras or home camcorders to see one another live. Cisco systems offer a much higher quality system to cable news systems to allow their studio anchors to conduct interviews, but the basic idea is the same and a thirty dollar webcam can give the home user the same functionality.

Couples parted by job or circumstances can keep in contact with one another by sight instead of just voice; soldiers overseas can see and talk to their families back home. With advances in satellite telephone technology it is even possible to conduct video calls to ocean liners and some long haul airlines are looking at the possibility of providing pinhole cameras in their aircraft to allow passengers to hold video calls with suitably equipped PCs or video phones anywhere in the world.

There can be no doubt we have entered a phase in technological advancement where cameras in the home are beginning to leave the realm of novelty and be employed for day to day use in a variety of different circumstances. Developments such as the domestic videophone, videoconferencing internet software and cheap surveillance camera promise a future of video linking previously only seen in science fiction programs. It promises to be an interesting future.