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It used to be that security systems only were found in opulent, expensive homes. Mansions used the latest in equipment that ranged from perimeter alarms to loud alarms that lit up the entire property when an intruder triggered the system.
You may have seen a television commercial as of late where a woman checks her home computer to see her daughter coming in the door safely from school.
Welcome to home security, 21st-century style. No longer are security systems the exclusive property of the rich. Now companies offer security in the home for a cost of a few hundred dollars to install a system and $30 to $40 a month to maintain it. Now that basic home security can be found in most new houses, there are people that want to turn the basic into the advanced.
What is considered advanced security in these days?
For starters, there is the example of a mother seeing her daughter walk in the door from school. Some security systems now offer surveillance cameras inside the house. These cameras can be trained on volatile areas of the home, like where you may have a safe. Video-surveillance techniques like this offer the chance to catch a criminal in the act. Often when you are alerted of a security breach in your home, the police are also notified. It is the same technology George Orwell foresaw in the novel “1984”, only its usage here is for the greater good.
Speaking of movies and entertainment, if you saw the Jodie Foster movie “Panic Room” a few years back you caught a glimpse of new technology now found in more homes. The panic room is a room where families or those alone in a house can retreat if something happens. These rooms lock out criminals and are sort of in-home bunkers where no one can find you. If your home is under invasion by criminals, this is a chance for you to get away to a safe place and stay there until the danger passes.
This is home automation and it’s the wave of the future. The same technology that lets you program your DVR from a smartphone also now can turn on your home security system. It used to be you had to get in your house and input the code within 10 or 15 seconds or risk an alarm going off. The same thing applied if you were leaving. You had to input the code and get out of there in a hurry. Now you can use a phone app and arm your house after you have left or disarm it when you return.
These techniques do everything from lock your doors automatically and turn your thermostat up or down all the way to an automatic unlock of your house from the road. An old Warner Brothers cartoon from the 1950s, “Design for Leaving”, featured Daffy Duck trying to sell Elmer Fudd a house loaded with push-button gadgetry. If only the animators could come back and see today’s security systems.
You do not have to bust your checkbook to install the latest in security systems. Choose wisely and sleep better at night knowing your home is in great shape.
Image Courtesy: Vivint
