Loading...Today’s home security systems have a lot more to offer than they did just 5 or 10 years ago. They’re smarter, more efficient, more agile, and – most importantly – more secure than ever before. Way beyond simple intrusion detection, today’s systems give homeowners all sorts of capabilities.
These recent advancements in home security technology are changing the way we look at home security, and offering more and easier ways to do things.
Greater versatility
Home security systems today do a lot more than just monitor your doors and windows. They connect with fire detection systems or carbon monoxide gas detection systems, too. Home security systems are extending their reach, protecting your home from more than just burglars.
Beyond that, however, some home security systems are moving toward a much bigger home management role. For example, some systems can connect to your home’s central heating or air. Rather than programming a thermostat, you access your home’s heating and cooling systems via your home security system.
The same goes for lighting; there are a number of ways that your home security system can be used to control the lighting in your home, as well. Today, that’s primarily via outlet-based switches that connect to portable lighting, but the technology exists to wire your home’s built-in lighting right into your home security system, as well.
Greater accessibility
There was a time when you had to be standing at your home security control panel and punch in obscure codes or commands to get it to do anything. Today, that’s not the case. Technology has made it more convenient and intuitive to manage your home security system.
Take, for example, smartphones. Most home security vendors today offer a smartphone app that will allow you to remotely manage your home security system. From your smartphone, you can do things like:
- Arm or disarm your home security system
- View live or archived feeds from your home security cameras
- Check to see if there are any active alarms (open doors, windows, etc)
- Look at your system logs
- Control other systems that interface with your home security system, such as heating and cooling or lighting
Speech recognition is another technology that’s making home security systems more accessible. Rather than using a keypad at the control panel, some systems now allow you to simply “talk” to the system to give commands or make changes. This is an emerging technology in the home security system arena, and so few vendors have this kind of option today. However, you can be sure it’s coming, and right behind it will be voice identification components that insure you’re the only one that can make voice changes to your system.
One of the most exciting aspects of all of these advancements is that they’re actually serving to reduce the cost of home security systems. As vendors strive to stay competitive in a somewhat-flooded home security system market, many of these technologies become value-adds that, rather than coming at a premium, will soon be standard components of just about any home security system.
Check out some of these cool new advances in home security technology today.