Active Deterence-Your Camera Doesn't Have to Just Watch Someone
Most security cameras work the same basic way: something happens, the camera records it, and you watch the video afterward.
Alarm.com cameras can be set up to respond while the event is happening.
Here's how it works.
1. Tell the camera what you want it to watch
Alarm.com's Video Analytics can distinguish between people, vehicles and animals.
More importantly, we can create specific areas and virtual tripwires in the camera's view and determine which activity matters.
For example, you might want to know when:
A person enters the side yard after dark.
Not every car driving past. Not your dog walking across the yard. Not a tree moving in the wind.
A person. In that area. At that time.
That's the event that starts everything else.
2. Decide what the camera should do
Here's where it gets interesting.
Instead of simply sending you a notification and recording a clip, compatible Alarm.com cameras can use Perimeter Guard to react automatically.
Depending on the camera, that can include a warning sound, flashing LED or spotlight. The V729 floodlight camera can go further with floodlights, strobing, red-and-blue warning lights and a siren.
So the rule can effectively become:
If a person enters this area after 10 PM → record the event → alert me → turn on the light → play a warning.
The person now knows the camera didn't simply record them.
It saw them.
3. You can respond yourself, too
Suppose you're watching Live View and see someone who shouldn't be there.
On compatible cameras, you can manually activate the camera's Warning Sound directly from Alarm.com's app or website. You can also use two-way audio on supported cameras to speak to the person yourself.
That changes the camera from something you watch into something you can actually use to intervene.
4. AI Deterrence can make the warning specific
This is Alarm.com's newest step.
With AI Deterrence, the camera analyzes the person it sees and can generate a verbal warning based on details such as the person's clothing and where they are on the property.
Instead of a generic siren or prerecorded warning, someone could hear a message identifying their clothing or location—making it apparent that their specific activity has been detected.
The important difference
Recording is still important. If something happens, you want the video.
But we'd rather use the camera to help prevent the event from happening in the first place.
That's the difference between a camera that records activity and a camera that can do something about it while it's happening.
Here is how you set it up:
Of course you can always all us for help!
