Hidden Motion Activated Camera Devices for Smart Surveillance
The ability of surveillance cameras to minimize human error makes all the difference. Whether you are on the lookout for an abusive nanny or an unfaithful spouse, videos provide rock-hard evidence compared to conjecture or eyewitness memory. Spy cams these days can practically be left alone to do the monitoring on their own. They can record what they see 24/7 using a built-in DVR, yet they can hold off on recording until there is action if the DVR has a motion sensor. Right now, a hidden motion activated camera may be the best way to prevent wastage of any kind when keeping watch around the clock.
When Surveillance Should Be Covert
Monitoring is essential to security. Parents watch over their kids to keep them safe from accidents and predators. Managers keep tabs on employees to detect fraud, idling, and other wrongdoings. Surveillance cameras are great security devices because, unlike a human watch, they never get tired or leave their post.
If you run a home or business, you can use these video cameras to keep an eye on your loved ones and valuables when you are not around. If you are present, they can still show you what you missed when you were not looking.
Professional security cameras are ideal for monitoring. The sight of these cams will even discourage and scare away miscreants, but they may give certain types of lawbreakers the upper hand. Burglars and thieves, for example, will plan around your camera locations, avoid being filmed, and maybe cover the lenses. Cheats and swindlers will simply put their best foot forward in front of the camera.
Covert cameras, on the other hand, can capture people on video without their knowing. Typically, these hidden cameras are not DSLR cameras that come disguised in plain-looking, inconspicuous objects, such as wall clocks and mirrors, which any room in any house or office can have without raising suspicions. A nanny cam concealed in an all-too-familiar electrical outlet or a teeny-tiny clothes hook is sure to catch a heartless babysitter in the act.
Hidden Cameras with a Built-in DVR
Many places of business have a surveillance system that uses a combination of visible and hidden cameras. Home use tends to involve concealed cameras more, such as to discreetly keep an eye on a suspicious partner or the house help or to video a theft for the purpose of helping the police nab the perpetrators. For the most part, video proof is critical, and hence the need for a video recording device.
Although you may hook up your spy cam to an external recorder, the easiest and most foolproof approach is with the use of hidden cameras that have a built-in DVR, or digital video recorder. Such a recorder comes pre-installed within the product you have purchased so this product requires no installation. A DVR-equipped camera can start recording out of the box.
A hidden camera in DVR mode becomes a plug and play device that you can operate even if you are not tech-savvy. You just point it to the direction of the area you want monitored, hit ‘record’ on the included remote control, and leave it to do its job.
The DVR saves your videos in a digital format that can be stored in and copied to any modern-day computer. Digital videos are smaller in size than analog videos, and they can be read by any digital media player. Like other computer files, they can be moved, renamed, deleted, sent to your phone, or attached to emails.
Easy Does It with Motion-Activated Recording
Motion detection is probably the best capability that a DVR can have because it pares down your surveillance work to only what is practical and necessary. It is the capability of a DVR to detect movement and be triggered by that detected motion into recording automatically, with no human intervention. If no motion is picked up, the DVR simply stays switched on and ready to record but does no actual recording.
Let us say you want to keep tabs on the house cleaner that comes twice a week and does the housework while no one is home. You turn on your air purifier hidden camera in the living room before you leave for the office in the morning and turn it off when you return in the evening. Without motion-activated recording, you will be facing countless hours’ worth of video containing just your empty, motionless living area. You will need to scan through all the uneventful parts just to get to the ones with the cleaner in them.
With motion-activated recording, the spy camera will start recording by itself once anyone, such as the cleaner, enters the room. Once the person leaves the room, the camera will stop recording on its own as well. The resulting videos will be only the ones you want. They will take up less space in the DVR or computer and certainly less of your time. And you will not have used too much electricity or battery power, as the camera was not recording nonstop all day.
The best hidden camera with DVR is one equipped with a motion sensor because it lets you perform surveillance that is smart and not wasteful. You may then review the action-packed footage at your convenience.
The Best Companions to Motion Detection
With a DVR, video playback is a walk in the park. You simply slot the provided SD card into an SD card reader plugged into a computer. Or you may connect the camera and a television using an RCA cable. Some cameras come with a USB cable or plug you can use with the computer’s USB port, or they may have a viewing port for instant playback. All these become much easier when you have fewer, selected videos to view, thanks to a motion-sensing DVR.
As someone’s arrival can trigger a motion detector, you will want to make your hidden camera DVR HD, or high definition, to aid in identifying the persons caught on video. Consider infrared or night vision if you are using your camera after sundown or with a scant light source. The combination of motion activation, high definition, and night vision in a hidden camera is perfect when monitoring for housebreakers or a sneaky husband or wife.
