In a country where insecurity is a major problem,
it is advisable to do all you can to safeguard your life and property and not
wait for the government to do the job for you.
Setting up a home security system does not need to
cost you an arm and a leg.
In fact, according to cnet.com, you don’t need to
wait until you could afford to install a closed-circuit television in your home
to secure your life and property.
All you need are two smartphones — one will be
installed in your apartment while the other will be used to monitor what’s
happening from anywhere you are.
As long as your phones are
working properly and their rear cameras are functioning, you’re good to go. The
process is very easy to set up, but not totally free.
Get a security camera app
running on your phone:
To begin, you will need to
choose a security camera app for your phone. Most apps offer up much of the
same features, such as local streaming, cloud streaming, recording and storing
footage locally or remotely, and motion detection and alerts. Once you’re set
up, you will be able to monitor your living space and control your security
camera from anywhere, straight from your phone.
Installing security camera
app on iOS
One of the best options for
turning an iOS device into a security camera is an application called Manything
(a mash-up of “Monitor anything”). With Manything, you can set up motion
alerts, choose between a video or stills-only mode, and even integrate with
IFTTT (an abbreviation of “If This Then That”) — a free web-based service that
allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called
“recipes,” which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as
Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest — for virtually endless ways to
configure your security camera.
Manything is a free
download from the App Store and comes with a completely free plan, allowing up
to one camera and free recording.
To get started:
- Download Manything from the App Store to the two iOS
phones.
- From the phone to be installed in your home, open
Settings
and disable Auto Lock under
General.
- Register or sign in to Manything using an email address
or
Facebook account.
- Select Camera mode with the iOS device at home and
Viewer
mode for the mobile device.
- Press the red button from the home camera device to
start
the live stream.
- From the mobile phone, the live stream will appear in
the list of streaming devices. Alternatively, you
can view the stream from a
computer by signing in at manything.com.
Installing security camera
app on Android
The process for iOS device
is very similar to that of an Android device, except that there is a different
camera app for the latter. Despite so many options to choose from, one of the
best security camera applications available is IP Webcam. There is a lite
version available completely free of charge, but you will need to purchase the
Pro version of the app for $3.99 (about N1,500) to unlock all features.
IP Webcam broadcasts both
locally and over the cloud using a service called Ivideon, so you can view your
stream, live, from anywhere.
To setup your Android phone
as a security camera:
- Download IP Webcam from Google Play to the home device.
- Launch IP Webcam and set your video preferences,
effects, power management settings, and motion or sound detecting, if
desired. (To broadcast the stream remotely, register or sign in to
Ivideon, test compatibility and enable the cloud stream).
- To start the stream, select Start server at the very
bottom of the app.
- To view the stream on your mobile device: Find the
provided IP address and port number on the phone setup as a security
camera. From another device (computer, smartphone, or tablet), enter the
IP address in the address bar of the Web browser. Note that if you setup
an Ivideon cloud stream, from a computer, visit ivideon.com and sign in to
view.
Punch
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