Moat & Drawbridge
What can Smart-Home security systems offer?
Security systems are usually very high on the agenda for Smart-Home buyers. I’m not going to inundate you with statistics about burglary and property crime, whether you feel due diligence is adequate to protect your home or whether you need one of everything on the security menu is a subjective decision. What provision one makes to protect their own property is a matter for them to decide and this writer is saying nothing new when he says that, due to the saleability of crime, the media makes our society much more fearful than necessary. Although, stepping off the soapbox for a moment it makes logical sense that, the nicer your home is the more attractive it is to criminals, and so for those who regard their home as their castle and are interested in what the modern equivalent to a drawbridge and moat, please read on.
Keeping “them” away
Firstly, dealing with obstructing the route for undesirables to get to your home. Automated and remote-control gates, garages, doors and windows are well known and tried and tested devices. Their effectiveness can be maximised by integrating them to other elements of the Smart-Home, for example, if there is a forced entry then it could trigger a series of actions such as the sound system can informing you of the security breach, lock down specific entrances and leave others unlocked, turn on all the lights and dial for the police. Fingerprint access doors are a good way of making things more difficult for intruders as not only is much more difficult to copy a finerprint, you can’t just go down to the local locksmiths and get one cut, but it also removes the danger of the intruder trying to pick your locks. Other than making it physically difficult for intruders to gain access to your home, persuading them not to, is equally a good technique if not better. Simulating the appearance of occupancy is an area that home-automation really come to the fore. Programming blinds, shutters, lights, music, and sprinklers to come on at predetermined times or in response to external conditions such as it getting dark, can be very convincing in giving the impression someone is home. In addition, a useful system is to integrate the entry phone and camera so that it can be accessed on all the screens and speakers in the house and also provide access to these over a secure internet portal so that a homeowner could actually speak to someone at the door even though they are not at home.
Knowing “they’re” here
Equipment to detect intruders have been around long enough. PIR (Passive Infrared) Detectors aka motion sensors detect any intruder passing in front of the field of detection. They do not emit signals of their own but are sensitive to the body heat emitted by a live person moving nearby. Sound discriminators aka glass break detectors are designed to detect the sound of breaking glass. They provide a constant monitor of approximately 20-25ft area. CCTV whether small and discrete so that intruders do not know they are being monitored or big ‘prison’ style boxes which let people know their actions are being recorded, are also a well established technology. Smart-Home systems maximise the functionality of CCTV cameras by allowing homeowners to see what is being recorded on any screen in the house or over the internet or even have images sent to their mobile. With the advent of compressed digital video files video can be stored on CCTV servers in a space efficient manner, no longer do you have to mess around with tapes and worry that they may run out of space. As mentioned above, these well established devices can be brought together to provide solutions which mean that when an intrusion or detection takes place a pre-programmed response action can automatically occur.
Smart-Home systems thus integrate well known devices that use well established technology to create a quite science-fiction-esque living environment that makes sure that, what is most dear to us are adequatley protected, which is nice.
