Canary, the hipster’s home security gizmo detects everything

Criminals are smart, not Oceans 11 smart, but they’re getting there. The internet opens up a wealth of opportunities for them, so we just gotta smack them down with smarter crime-stopping methods. That’s where this geeky smartphone-connected sentry robot, named Canary, comes into play.

Canary is the “world’s first” home security device for everyone. So it’s for you, and your paranoid neighbour who makes that weird knocking sound at 2am every morning. It’s also an Indiegogo project that’s been fully funded, so for US$200 you can buy one of these shiny security devices in your pad. Here’s why we think it’s important though.

We watched the video, read the site and wondered why no-one’s thought of this before. Canary is a giant sensor outfitted with a HD camera. It also monitors sound, air quality, humidity, motion, temperature, the whole nine yards. It’s controlled from an Android or iOS device and whenever Canary senses something irregular (these settings are user-controlled or automated by Canary), your phone notifies you with an update that will say stuff like “unexpected spike in temperature” or “warning: the cats on fire”.

When the alert comes through, you’ll decide how to respond. Three options, all suitably friendly are triggered directly from the notification: Make a phone call, send a text or sound the alarm. Or you could always scan your pad in real-time via the HD camera. Doesn’t it all just sound awesome and safe? The tech specs are fairly impressive, have a gander at this read out here:

Now, while Canary has a once-off cost of US$200, there’s going to be an (optional) service plan that includes call-centre backup and longer archival of recorded footage. The creators stress that these are premium plans that will be contract-free.

There are tons of questions surrounding home security, and team Canary answers them all. With traditional home security setups costing a pretty penny, we think that Canary will sing in many homes when it ships May 2014. Canary has been fully funded and absolutely blew past it’s funding goal of US$100 000. It’s now close the US$900 000 and that should tell you something that 1) people are paranoid and 2) we love space-age gadgets that’ll alert us of everything.