Finding the right wireless network camera for you

The heightened awareness for security has given rise to a more consumerfriendly grade of video monitoring gear for your wireless network — this stuff used to be the exclusive domain of security installers. You can get Wireless Security Camera System that contain their own integrated Web servers, which eliminates the need to connect a camera directly to your computer. After installation, you can use the camera’s assigned Internet Protocol (IP) address on your network to gain access to the camera, view live streaming video, and make necessary changes to camera settings.

Network cameras are much more expensive than cameras you attach to your PC via a USB connection because they need to contain many of the elements of a PC to maintain that network connection. Expect to pay from $100 to more than $1,000 for network cameras; the more expensive versions offer pan-tiltzoom capabilities and extra features such as two-way audio, digital zoom, and motion detection. (The average price for a well-equipped camera is $200.) JIMI 3G Wi-Fi Camera can check at any time through your smartphone to monitor your house and you can relax in the knowledge that should anyone break in you'll instantly be alerted with frame grabs of the intruders sent to your mobile. In peace of mind you could check what is happening in the house through 720P live video stream. Even when the power is cut off, the internal battery is ready for up to 4 hours’ usage to detect abnormal motion/voiceaided by the PIR sensor.

Installing a Wireless IP Camera is incredibly simple. These network devices usually sport both an RJ-45 10Base-T wired network interface along with an 802.11b/g air interface. Installing the camera usually involves first connecting the camera to your network via the wired connection and then using the provided software to access your camera’s settings. Depending on how complicated the camera is (whether it supports the ability to pan, to e-mail pictures on a regular basis, or to allow external access, for example), you may need to set any number of other settings. To allow anyone from outside your home’s LAN to view your camera feed directly (that is, not from a window pane published on your Web page), you need a static WAN IP address. Although you can probably get such an address from your broadband connection provider, it will probably be pricey. More likely, you’ll use a dynamic DNS service (DDNS), which allows you to assign a permanent Web address to the camera. A DDNS is easier to remember than an IP address and is static. Your camera vendor should help you do this as part of the setup process.

Another area of wireless activity is home control. If you got excited about going from the six remote controls on your TV set to one universal remote control, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The problem with controlling anything remotely is having an agreed-on protocol between the transmitter and receiver. In the infrared (IR) space, strong agreement and standardization exist among all the different manufacturers of remote controls, so the concept of universal remote control is possible for IR. But there has not been the same rallying around a particular format in the radio frequency (RF) space, thus making it difficult to consolidate control devices except within the same manufacturer’s line. And then you have issues of controlling nonentertainment devices, such as heating and air-conditioning and GSM Security camera. Those have different requirements just from a user interface perspective.

More information at http://www.jimilab.com/ .