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Have you ever wondered how many security cameras you should install in your home? From your exterior doors, living room, to the hallways, kitchen and bedrooms, it takes numerous cameras to fully cover every spot of your house.

Amazon’s new addition to its smart home solutions, the Ring Always Home Cam, however, will enable users to achieve this visibility without the need for costly installations.

The Ring Always Home Cam is actually a drone with a security camera installed, meaning it could fly all over your home and record every possible spot indoors. First, the user will build a map of their home that the product will follow, assigning specific viewpoints such as the kitchen or bedroom. The Ring Always Home Cam will then automatically patrol according to a user-defined schedule or if there is a disturbance detected by Ring’s own alarm system.

Let’s say you think you forgot to turn off the stove; You can command the camera to fly to the kitchen and check immediately. Another use is when a burglar breaks into your house, you can deploy the camera to see who is inside your home.

When not in use, the camera will stay hidden inside a dock while charging. The drone needs to be charged for an hour for every 5 minutes of flying time. Also, since the camera is equipped with propellers, it emits a humming sound so users will be aware that their surroundings are being filmed. These features are what Amazon called “privacy you can hear”.

The question now is – can this kind of innovation replace the stationary cameras and even security personnel in the future? Right now, the product is still in development, and has many limitations and possible flaws. Yes, you can observe what is happening to your house in real-time, but if there’s really a threat, the camera cannot do much. The camera will not be able to do anything but record a masked burglar, one who can just destroy the camera as well.

Aside from this concern, privacy is also an issue. From a personal perspective, you can feel uncomfortable that a camera is recording every part of your house, especially if it’s connected to the cloud, which can be compromised. As an answer, Amazon is planning to implement end-to-end encryption in efforts to improve the device’s security.

To be released in 2021 for $250, the Amazon Ring Always Home Camera is just the first step in innovation when it comes to security and surveillance. Maybe in the near future, when infused with other powerful emerging technologies such as AI and 5G, we will see significant improvements that can be applied in industrial settings.

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