Alerts & Alarms

Announcing Potential Threats

If a condition or situation arises that poses a threat to your family, home, or possessions, how do you want to be alerted—and how should assistance be summoned? Traditionally, an alarm system would detect a forced entry or a fire (for example), sound the alarm (usually a loud bell on the outside of the home and/or an inside siren), and then report the event to a central monitoring station, who would alert the local police or fire departmenet—after calling the house first to make sure it isn’t a false alarm.

This approach has saved countless lives in times past, and still serves as a first line of protection today. But smart home technology is rapidly changing the face of home safety and security, with its many options for keeping closer track of what’s happening at home when you are asleep, at work, or out of town.

New Choices

Electronic integration systems today can collect much more detailed and relevant information about your home and household than previously available. This gives them the capacity to aggregate larger patterns of data, which is then interpreted relative to your specific household and lifestyle. See Security Cameras; Damage Prevention

You can be alerted in whatever way or ways you choose. Pre-scripted messages, triggered by a single event (or combination of conditions), can be sent however you choose to whomever you want—via email or text message, voice message via smartphone or land line: to a family member, trusted neighbor, or any combination of them.

Triggering Conditions

These technologies can be precisely attuned to your needs and preferences. Example: the system could be programmed to text you when your teenager, arriving home from school, enters her number into the security alarm keypad, and unlocks the front door. Then it alerts again after she re-locks the front door.

A motion detector could then turn on the security camera in the entry hall and email you images, so you can see if she’s alone—or with her boyfriend, for example. The system could even be programmed to capture the scene and send you a video clip.

Another example: the system could be set up to email you at work when the house cleaner arrives (by assigning her a unique password), and again when she leaves. Receive an additional alert if she forgets to re-set the alarm or lock the front door when she leaves—so you can do it remotely.

You could even choose to receive a text message or visual image if your dog knocks over the table lamp in the living room—when chasing the cat (not again!)

Security camera images can be combined with alarms, and additional clarifying information, to trigger custom-tailored messages.

Using this approach, it is possible to keep track of all the comings and goings in the household while you’re away. You’ll get all the details you want, so you can be assured that everything is going as planned, and everyone is safe.

But be pragmatic, so that you obtain realistic sets of information. Large amounts of data can easily result in information overload. Better to discuss your plans with a home security expert first.