Another feature we’ve come across is bark
detection for when you’ve got a canine
companion at home and want to get a
warning when he or she is agitated. If you
know your dog is likely to get worked up
while you’re away from home, and you want
to be notified when that happens, get a pet
cam with this included.ADDING A BIT EXTRA
What you don’t usually get with pet cams
are the more advanced features, like
motion tracking or the ability to review the
highlights of several days’ worth of footage.
If you think these sorts of features might be
useful to you, then think about getting one
or more security cameras and using them
for your pets as well.You can configure
various aspects
of your camera
through the app
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SMART HOME ECOSYSTEM
Make sure you pick smart gadgets that all work together
When you’re picking out a new bit of kit to add
to your smart home setup it’s a good idea to
make sure it works with everything else you’ve
already got in place. For your smart home to
work properly, all the different pieces that
make it up need to be happy talking together,
otherwise you can easily get buried in a pile of
separate apps and competing standards.
For example, look for hardware that’s
compatible with the Amazon Alexa or Google
Assistant digital assistant apps. Not only
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commands (eg, “turn off the bedroom lights”)
to get your smart home in order, it also
means you’ll be able to operate all your
gadgets through the Alexa or Assistant apps.If you’ve got a smart display, such as an
Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub,
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see all your devices in one place, and you
operate groups of devices together. You’ll
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came with your cameras, bulbs, sensors,
thermostats and so on, but it’s handy to have
everything in one place as well.
Other smart home standards are available:
Apple has HomeKit, which doesn’t work with
as many different devices, but which is a
choice that makes sense if you have Macs,
iPhones, iPads, Apple T Vs and HomePods.
Then there’s Samsung SmartThings – a
growing number of smart home kit nowworks with this standard, both with and
without the Samsung label attached, so that’s
another route open to you. There is a
dedicated SmartThings Camera for example,
while Ring and Arlo cameras work with the
SmartThings platform too.
You might also come across the older and
more established smart home protocols
Zigbee and Z-Wave, which again give you an
indication of which devices are able to
communicate with each other and can be
operated through one central hub (whether
that’s a physical box or a single phone app).
Whichever smart home platform you opt for,
make sure that the gadgets you buy are
speaking the same language, as it were.gets you two extra features in particular –
treat dispensing and games. As you’ll see
with our camera picks, some pet cams can
be configured to toss out snacks on a timer
or whenever you push a button on your
phone, which is one way of keeping your pet
entertained and fed while you’re away.
Pet cams are also usually more robust
than general smart cameras, better able to
withstand knocks and pats and licks from
whatever animals you have at home. If your
pets have a tendency to chew through
wiring and make a mess, think about getting
a battery-powered camera set up at home:
you’ll need to keep recharging or replacing
the batteries, but you won’t need to hook it
up to a power socket (and that means you
can put it anywhere in the home too).
Whatever camera or combination of
cameras you pick though, don’t worry about
installation or setup, because this will
typically be very straightforward: get the
associated app installed on your phone and
it’ll guide you through the process of
connecting your new device up to your local
Wi-Fi network, and making sure that you
can reach it from wherever you are.
You’ll be able to configure various aspects
of your camera through the phone app, from
how sensitive the bark detection is to how
often you want treats dispensed, and if your
device of choice is able to connect up to other
smart kit in your home then you’ll be able to
manage this through the app as well.Speaking of other smart kit, it is
probably worth thinking about what else
you might want to work alongside your
pet camera, and how else you might want
to control it. Amazon Echo Show devices
can bring up feeds from Ring security
cameras (also made by Amazon), for
example, while Chromecasts are able to
pick up the feeds coming from Nest cameras
(as they’re all made by Google). If there’s a
specific screen that you want to see your
pets on, make sure it’s covered by the
camera that you choose.46 T3 AUGUST 2020
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