Yesterday, Amazon owned company Ring—the folks behind the popular Internet-connected security cams, door bells, etc.—unveiled a … different … kind of security camera. It’s called the Always Home Cam, and it’s an autonomous indoor security camera drone that can fly around patrolling your house at your behest.
Ring’s CEO Jamie Siminoff says the Always Home Cam was inspired by real complaints from real customers.
Something I frequently hear from customers is “I have a few Indoor Cams from Ring, but sometimes I would leave the house and couldn’t remember if I’d left a window open and wished I had a camera there.” Instead of simply encouraging customers to buy more cameras and set them up in more locations around the home, how could we solve this problem with one solution?
This autonomous drone—which can be pre-programmed with personalized “paths,” and integrates with Ring’s alarm system—is their solution. You can see the drone in action in the ad below:
Since not everyone (or most people? or anyone?) will feel entirely comfortable with the idea of an autonomous camera drone ready to be hacked at any moment and go buzzing into your children’s room unannounced, Siminoff says Ring thought long and hard about safety and privacy during the design process.
The Always Home Cam’s camera is covered when the drone is docked, the drone (obviously) makes noise when it’s flying so it can’t exactly surprise you, and most importantly, the drone cannot be manually controlled—it will only fly the paths you pre-program when setting it up.
Whether that will be enough to reassure people—or convince them to spend money on a security camera drone that may only be used a few times per year—is anybody’s guess.
To learn more about the Always On Cam or sign up to be notified when it launches, click here. The indoor security camera drone is expected to launch (literally and figuratively) sometime in 2021 for $250.
(via Engadget)
Author: DL Cade
Source: Petapixel
