By Natasha Baker
TORONTO, May 6 (Reuters) – Worried about what your dog is
chewing on when you’re at work, or whether your home is secure
while on vacation? New apps can transform old smartphones into
remote security cameras for home monitoring systems.
Presence, which was launched late last month, converts a
spare Internet-connected iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a free
video camera with real-time video and audio streaming, and
motion detection and notifications.
“Essentially we give you an inexpensive security system that
you can use to monitor your house, or help you watch your kids,
cats, elderly relatives or act as a baby or nanny cam,” said
Gene Wang, chief executive of the Palo Alto, California-based
company People Power.
Unlike traditional monitoring systems that can be expensive
and need technical knowledge to install and use, Wang said
Presence is a free do-it-yourself system that can be set up
simply by downloading and configuring the app.
To use it consumers install and login to their account on
two devices – for example two iPhones. Then they can start the
camera within the app on one of the devices and it can be viewed
from the app on the other.
Triggers can also be set to record when motion is detected
and to send alerts. The app can help to avoid false alarms,
according to Wang, because it sends a video clip in an email to
the user showing the motion that triggered the alert.
“With these high-end security systems, you have a lot of
false positives and then the security company and police come
out and it turns out it was your cat knocking over a broom or
something like that,” Wang explained.
He added that many people have replaced their old
smartphones with new ones and a monitoring system would be a
good way to make use of the old devices.
Another app created by a company called People Power 1.0 for
iPhone and Android reads electricity meters in real time to show
consumers how much they’re spending and whether they are going
over budget.
“The center of computing has switched to these smart
computers that we all carry in our pockets,” Wang explained.
“What people are going to want to be able to do is control
their personal Internet of Things from their hands,” he added,
referring to Internet-connected devices in the home.
The company also plans to work with underfunded public
schools to help them set up security systems using old devices
donated by the community.
Other apps have similar functions. AirBeam is a home
monitoring app for iOS that allows users to access video feeds
from a Web portal.
Izon is an app that streams real-time audio and video from
iZon cameras to iPhone and Android devices, and Ivideon, for iOS
and Android, also lets people build their own surveillance
system.
(Reporting by Natasha Baker; Editing by Patricia Reaney and
Eric Beech)
