Originally announced at Amazon’s Fall 2020 event, the Ring Always Home Cam is a flying indoor security camera for your home. It’s currently available by invitation only through Amazon’s Day 1 Edition program. Customers can request an invitation to purchase the Always Home Cam via its product page.
Ring Always Home Cam
The Ring Always Home Cam may seem extraordinary, and that’s because it is. It represents a first in Smart Home and drone technology. Drones with cameras aren’t a new concept. What makes Always Home Cam extraordinary is that it’s designed specifically to be flown indoors, in a domestic setting—a scenario that’s inherently dangerous with traditional flying drones.
Is the Ring Always Home Cam safe to fly indoors?
Designed to operate safely indoors, the propellers on the Ring Always Home Cam are soft with plastic tips and are enclosed on all sides. It will also automatically pause and return to the charging dock if it encounters an unexpected obstacle. With these safety features in mind, it’s not likely that the Always Home Cam would pose a safety threat to anyone or anything in your home.
Why not buy a traditional security camera?
Once you get past the initial apprehension of having what’s essentially a helicopter flying inside of your home, it’s worth considering that the Ring Always Home Cam solves some key problems inherent with traditional stationary security cameras. The first is the need to have a camera installed in every room you want to monitor, which is both costly and labor-intensive. The Always Home Cam can fly practically anywhere in your home, meaning there’s no need to buy additional devices or install a camera in multiple rooms.
The second, and arguably the most important, is privacy in your home. It’s easier to snoop undetected with traditional cameras; Despite having privacy settings to turn the camera off when someone’s home, in most cases, there isn’t anything physically covering the camera’s view. With traditional cameras, as long there’s power and an unobstructed view, there’s always the potential for a hacker to intrude, undetected. In comparison, the Ring Always Home Cam remains hidden in its dock while you’re home. Sure, it may still be suspectable to hacking, but it’s difficult to snoop undetected when you need to fly a noisy drone to do it.
Conclusion
The Ring Always Home Cam may still have something to prove before consumers and critics accept it as a viable alternative to traditional security cameras. However, it does address some key problems that traditional security cameras have yet to solve (privacy and the need for multiple cameras). In solving these problems, the Always Home Cam fits itself neatly into a niche, without any competition (yet). It’ll be interesting to see how homeowners will make use of Amazon’s indoor drone, and if it will eventually find a permanent home in the smart home space.
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