Ring’s latest security camera is a drone that flies around inside your house

The Verge ^ | Sep 24, 2020, | Dan Seifert

[BenLurkin]

The new Always Home Cam is an autonomous drone that can fly around inside your home to give you a perspective of any room you want when you’re not home. Once it’s done flying, the Always Home Cam returns to its dock to charge its battery. It is expected to cost $249.99 when it starts shipping next year.

Jamie Siminoff, Ring’s founder and “chief inventor,” says the idea behind the Always Home Cam is to provide multiple viewpoints throughout the home without requiring the use of multiple cameras. In an interview ahead of the announcement, he said the company has spent the past two years on focused development of the device, and that it is an “obvious product that is very hard to build.” Thanks to advancements in drone technology, the company is able to make a product like this and have it work as desired.

The Always Home Cam is fully autonomous, but owners can tell it what path it can take and where it can go. When you first get the device, you build a map of your home for it to follow, which allows you to ask it for specific viewpoints such as the kitchen or bedroom. The drone can be commanded to fly on demand or programmed to fly when a disturbance is detected by a linked Ring Alarm system.

[RayChuang88]

No thank you. Even with Ring's assurances, that drone is going to bonk somebody on the head and cause a head or eye injury sooner or later. 😲💥🤕🙄

[A Navy Vet]

"Clearly people will accept listening devices implanted in their homes and transmitting everything they say to a company with dubious privacy practices as long as the listening devices have women’s names."

Exactly why they use female voices. Neither the listening devices nor a drone will be in our house. Bad enough our ISP and cell phones can be hacked. There are too many instances of Alexa and other "smart" vocal devices turning on by themselves.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

That’s what [they] want you to think....

[faithhopecharity]

put feathers on it and the cats will eat it for dinner

(is feline termination covered by the warrantee?)

[DugwayDuke]

I have several Ring devices. I hate dealing with their phone service. First, you have to log into their website in order to get someone on the phone. Then they do this two factor authentication crap. I hate that. Doesn’t matter where I am, I have to go to another computer or cell phone to get the authentication codes. They can’t/won’t turn that off. Then I finally get someone on the phone who is difficult to understand.

[W.]

Yeah, but it kept leaving little piles of bolts everywhere, and always on the rug...

[kaila]

I would use it. Did I turn off the stove? Did I leave the iron on? It would help..

[ADemocratNoMore]

Meh ! Who needs a drone ? The walls have eyes & ears, so do our screens. Go back 43 years and watch this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6O1NRs-YuU

[ctdonath2]

“Why can’t they make a robot dog for around the house?”

I’m charging mine right now. Finally dug out the Sony AIBO out after near 17 years, let’s see if the battery held up.

The basic technology certainly has existed a long time. Back then such a beast was able to wander around on its own, built-in camera, reasonably convincing/amusing behavior. Dropping the computing power of a cellphone into it would be AMAZING; surprised it hasn’t been seriously pursued as a home product. (Yeah the AIBO had limited acceptance; one of those technologies that should have been pursued in a corner of a lab for a couple decades so it could be ready when society was.)

[redfreedom]

“Amazes me that people will pay to be spied on.”

Seriously, your are so correct. If it’s digital and connected to the internet/cell phone system at all, it is hackable.

While you are busy checking out the security of your whole home, someone else could be watching and looking for the most vulnerable spots. Or better yet, just do the looking on their own when you are not. A good hacker can do this without leaving any digital traces.