How to be ‘at home’ when you’re away
Home security CCTV cameras were once the stuff of suburban fantasy. Over the last few years though, the cost of wireless cameras that stream live video to your smart-phone while you’re away from home has been dramatically eroded as smart, lean tech start-ups join the market. New York based Canary is one such company whose breakthrough product is designed for use in all homes and not just for when you’re away.
In a desire to make things as ‘plug-and-play’ as possible the entire set-up is self-contained with just a power lead running from its base to a standard wall socket. The set-up process requires you to connect a ‘secure setup cable’ from the device to the speaker socket on your iOS or Android phone – this unusual step is designed to limit any digital eavesdropping from the outset.
Available in black, grey or white, the device itself resembles a stylish wireless speaker in looks and dimensions. After you’ve downloaded the app and created an account you can adjust the camera’s motion sensitivity, so that trees rustling outside the window won’t trigger the recording but someone walking through the room will.
You can set the device to automatically arm when you leave the house and, if it detects movement, Canary will record what’s happening in the room, upload that video and sound recording to the cloud and notify you via your phone. As well as watching the recorded video you can view the camera’s live picture from your phone and if the room is in darkness, Canary will automatically switch to night-vision mode. When you return home, your app settings determine what mode the wide-angle camera switches to next. You can choose Privacy, where the camera and sound is disabled completely or a Disarmed mode so movement is recorded but you don’t receive phone notifications. A coloured LED lights up on the device to let you know which mode the device is in.
Canary also monitors air quality, temperature and humidity and displays that data on the app. The device has a 90 decibel siren which you can trigger remotely in response to a video notification you receive. You can monitor multiple locations from the same app, ideal for summer homes and home-offices.
Canary is a home-security product but is also great for keeping an eye on your pets while you’re at work or even connecting with family on big days. To see the sort of footage it can capture, the #CaughtByCanary hashtag on Twitter will conjure up a mix of amusing pets and criminal ineptitude.
Canary is a company with a wonderful product created by smart, passionate founders and it really is more than a security product... it’s a movement.