First, it provides the active zones on a frame by “painting” them, giving users precise control over which areas of the scene trigger an alert. For example, if you painted the top edge of a door in the background of a scene, the camera will only detect movement if the door is opened. People walking near the door and under the active zone would go unnoticed. You can have literally dozens of active areas of varying shapes and sizes in a single frame.
Just as important, iWatchLife’s engineers have developed an image analysis algorithm designed to ignore the sorts of things that might set alarm bells ringing on other systems, like a big leaf blowing across the yard seen through a patio door.
For my test, I set up a camera to monitor my daughter playing in a room with a large window with a view to a strong snowstorm on the other side of the street, then painted the room’s two exits and the top of the balcony door as active zones. The iWatchLife system issued no event alerts related to her play, the snowfall, or the significant change in room brightness when the sky cleared (though there is an option to monitor major lighting changes). The only alerts came when she passed through the active zones to leave and re-enter the room. I found this satisfying.
Alerts take the form of emails that are sent to as many addresses as you choose the moment an event occurs. I knew almost instantly when my daughter left the room. The emails I received noted the reason for the alert and included snapshots with a green box highlighting the area of concern, as well as a link to launch the iWatchLife browser app for more details.
Amazingly, it costs nothing to set up an iWatchLife account. You can purchase additional video storage – 75 hours costs $60 per year, 200 hours sells for $80 – but the one hour of free storage provided all users should be all that’s needed for modest home monitoring needs, especially if you’re diligent about deleting older video alerts.
And while iWatchLife is more than happy to sell you one of its high quality wireless IP cameras, which range from $200 to $280 (I tried the latter and appreciated everything about it save it’s steep price tag), you’re also free to use your own hardware – including the Web camera built into your notebook.
That means most of us can get rolling with an advanced motion detection security system right now, and without spending a penny. It may even robust enough for some small business operations, such as retail stores and worksites.
It may not have the pretty-boy-gadget appeal of the iZON, but iWatchLife is pretty hard to beat.