The appeal of home security solutions stems from always being connected, allowing a user to always know what’s happening back at home. Most of these systems use video cameras to supplement alerts and other notifications with smart recognition technology to detect the source of a disturbance, for instance. Depending on the size of the home, this can require purchasing many cameras, making what should be economical systems far more expensive.
Orbii solves this little problem. Its spherical design lets it move by shifting its internal center of gravity, like a hamster in a hamster ball. Inside, a central sphere contains omni-directional drive motors that shift the sphere in any direction with control and agility, letting it freely roam (and map the environment over time) or be controlled by smartphone or tablet app. This makes it easy for users to take advantage of its 720p HD camera to get a clear picture whether it’s day or night due to built-in night vision, with eight hours of onboard storage or 30 days of cloud storage available for footage.
Sound and motion automatically catch Orbii’s attention: When it does hear or see something, it records up to 30 seconds of footage to accompany the alert it sends out. Video chatting is also available in conjunction with its speaker and microphone to check in manually. And to top it all off, its modular design lets users swap out each part individually. A single Orbii goes for $174 and is expected to ship April 2017. Its Indiegogo campaign is looking for $35,000 by June 23rd, 2016.
A single Orbii can cover an entire floor of a home or apartment, making it a powerful, standalone surveillance tool. IFTTT compatibility opens up a number of doors for more enterprising individuals, a far cry from low-cost surveillance options like Koova and Spot. While the former uses a 360° camera and the latter hopes for multiple, cheaper purchases to address the issue of coverage, Orbii can actually get to those nooks and crannies, making it a standout in the category.