Video Doorbells: The Best Functioning Option

Keeping an Eye on the Porch

With Social Media and the Internet, it's amazing what you can find about the Human Experience. And now with connected / Smart Homes, it is possible to see what's happening at home when you're not at home. Whether for security, deliveries, or just plain curiosity, having a robot with a camera watch your front porch is a fascinating idea.

What are the Options?

There are currently two schools of thought when it comes to Video Doorbells; Motion Capture or Full Stream Capture.  Products such as Skybell and Ring both offer Motion Capture only, where as Nest Hello offers Full Stream Capture.  The difference is that Motion Capture only delivers actual clips of captured activity; so if the camera notices a person, or creature, it will start recording for a short period of time. The Nest Hello records everything constantly and when a motion event occurs, it makes note of it.  There is a further distinction between these two schools, but it will be made clear later.

What is the Cost?

Although cost of a product is often stated clearly, the function of cost is rarely covered.  You might think that just by my having not jumped immediately to the price, that I may be trying to avoid the numbers.   It is important to not look only at the price of a product but to critically consider the value of the product.  Of course some people just cannot afford the price and so will immediately stop reading, ...

The short answer there is no monthly service fee for Skybell, whereas Ring ($30 / year) costs much less money than Nest ($50-$300 / year or $5-$30 / month). Each of these devices ranges in initial price around $200

But to those who value the function, please continue reading below.

What is the Value of Security?

Although it is difficult to put an actual definite price on Security, it is possible to make an informed decision based on good information.  Supposing a porch pirate steals a package from the doorstep, having a camera out there would have offered a much better idea of when the package was delivered and who picked it up.

To return to the topic mentioned earlier regarding motion capture, the best function that Nest Hello offers above and beyond other video doorbells is that of full daily video streaming.  While all three devices offer motion detection, no robot with a camera is as good as an alert human.  Even with outlines and masks and facial detection, computers are not very wise and experienced; they do not know to ignore plants blowing in the wind, they do no know the difference between a photo of a face and an actual face. 

The value in the Nest Hello is that to hedge the shortcomings of motion capture alone, it delivers all the video from the entire day.  And recognizing that no human (even those whose job it is) wants to sort through hundreds of hours of real-time footage to find the proverbial needle in a haystack; Nest can speed up the playback to a time lapse of the whole day in seconds. (See Video Above)

A New Age of Availability and Function

Throughout recent technological history, let's say in the last 60 years, it has been possible to get video surveillance on one's home.  It has even been possible to get recordings of that surveillance. And if one could afford it, to have a person watch those recordings; to be the human with experience behind the mechanical function of video recording.   Much more powerful computers now aid society in monitoring and finding differences in the videos, but they cannot fully replicate the wisdom of an experienced human. 

Society often argues for the lowest common denominator thinking that if we can get by with paying less, we effectively get more. But in this case, to sacrifice cost over function is an unworthy loss.  There is no way to go back and recover video that was never recorded.  And if the task is left to inexperienced robots, just to save a buck, we lose more than the money we've tried to save.


There are greater available technologies currently available than what is presented in this article, but for the price. So much more is possible and yet many of do not recognize it.  I highly recommend the Nest Hello Doorbell as it's value is much greater than it's price.

Check out the Nest Hello today:
    Nest.com
    BestBuy
    HomeDepot
    Lowes

It's only Money, I need Data

Money vs Data

A friend recently commented that I spend an awful lot of money on gadgets.  He exclaimed that I should save for my retirement.  I tried to explain, but it's hard to let someone else see inside my head.  The above image is a pretty close ideal; lots of numbers and pictures all centering on the flow of money out of my pockets and the flow of data in.

I want all the Data

I want all the data, but to get it costs money, so I will trade my money for the equipment that will bring me the data.   Alas, why do I want the data instead of the money?   I love to solve problems (sometimes problems that no one, besides me, has asked).   I like correlations, I like to see where my problems come from and for that I need more data.

Take My Money, Please

I don't make a lot of money doing this or my other distractions (er jobs).  But I also do not have kids (yet) and so a lot of my money goes to projects like what I will relate in later posts.  I dedicate a sizable chunk of my income to analysis and enjoy searching for more interesting ideas that analysis.  The money isn't the important part, but what the tool of money can do to get me to the important part.

So Why do all this?

Why do anything that one loves to do?  It certainly meets a need or desire.  I love to do it.  But of all the analysis that I have done or will do, is there a purpose or just a need?  I think it best if something that I need and want be beneficial to others.  Many scientist and researchers before me spent most of their lives studying things that might not have been looked upon as necessary or useful.  But now that they have done the work, we all have benefited from it.  I work for mankind

What Data do you Seek?

I seek monitoring data for analysis of the home environment.  I want to find out how to better manage the environment of the home.   There are so many points of information that are in a home, whether it be an old Apartment building or a new Townhouse.   Insulation, Location, Water, Sewer, Lighting, Heating / Cooling, Waste, and so on; these factors are normal lifestyle aspects.  They can be efficient or inefficient, but without data and analysis a person might never know how their life could be easier or better.

Lately, I've been set on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC).  There are several important factors to consider.  Maintaining a constant stasis temperature requires good insulation and then efficient heating and cooling.  You could heat a cold room all day, but if all the heat is leaking out or pouring out, it causes a good system to be inefficient.   But without the data, how are you even able to find out that this is happening?

Hardware & Software, Data & Analysis

Here comes the part where I recommend some hardware and software that I use help me find data and analyze it. 

Since the outset, even prior to the buyout, I have used Nest products.  They do (most of ) what I want.  And although they're far from cheap, they live up to the axiom that "you get what you pay for."   Utilizing the Nest Thermostat, Nest Cameras, and Nest Temperature Sensors, I am able to get a much more clear picture of what is happening with the temperature and humidity in my home and I have the capacity to make changes immediately.   These products allow me to see not only the current statuses of the home and its rooms, but to track the performance of the HVAC and it's constant war with the exterior climate.

Because Reasons

Since High School, I have sought data analysis and the ways to obtain it.  I wanted to know why my parents refused to turn keep the temp in the house in summer at a reasonable level.  Little did I know that it wasn't that they wanted to be uncomfortable, but that they liked money more than physical comfort.  If I knew then, what I know now about how to make the house more efficient, I would have set out for that immediately.  It took me more than two decades and a great deal of life lessons to discover the reasons.   And it is from these life-lessons that drives me to analyze and divulge to this blog, my experiences and thoughts.

Next Up

In subsequent blog posts I will cover other aspects of home monitoring, such as Lighting, Water management, Air Quality, and Insulation.

Amazon Key: Have Packages Dropped INSIDE your home... Wait, What?

Ever have you had packages stolen from your porch?
Are you never home because you work dawn til dusk?
Do you share your entire life with the world via social media?

Then you're probably a Millennial and Amazon Key is for you.

While the concept stands to reason that controlling one of the oldest interfaces in your home with an Internet-Connected interface, might be a step into the future, it's down-right scary to anyone older than 35.  Read the top comment on the above video to see the harsh rejection that has come from the public. It's fairly clear that the general public does not believe that Amazon has their interests at heart.

Personally, I have Internet-Connected (Nest) Cameras all over my house so that I can see the activity OUTSIDE of my home.  While I do have one camera INSIDE, its squarely pointed at the family pet (our Cockatiel, who rarely leaves his cage).   I am probably one of the few who would be willing to have a delivery person drop off a package inside the house, but my spouse would not.  But I can definitely see why many people reject this concept.

One of the last bastions of defense and security to our private lives is opened to a total stranger through the use of Amazon Key. While the actor in the video may be acting like the trust-worthy face of Amazon, we do not know what the Amazon delivery driver in our local town is like.  Is Amazon willing to back the possibly liability issues that may occur with this service?  Is the added fee enough to cover insurance claims when it fails?

Amazon is a huge company and there is probably more to the suggestion of Amazon Key than merely offering a different sort of security for packages and entry to our homes.  Like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, the large data mining corporations of this age want all that they can get from us, and access to our homes is likely the greatest gold mine of all.  Where does it stop, or does it stop?

It starts and stops with each of us.  While these corporations have the money to launch a concept to offer features that might be pleasing, there is no mandate to use these offers.  Like Facebook, the choice to post our personal information belongs to each of us; the choice to allow Amazon into our homes is also in our power.  Of course they have a great, fast delivery service, with an immense library of products, but we are the customers and we have the option choose (thankfully).