Just thought I’d mention a few technologies which are helping us quite a bit. One problem with inspection and surveillance recording has always been what to do with all that data - and what to do with “technology illiterate” employees. These items have helped:
Google Pixel phone: this phone is unique in that it comes with free unlimited online storage for full resolution video and photos in Google’s cloud photo storage service Google Photos. It is also entirely automatic - the photos and vids you take automatically upload/backup in the background (and also automatically scrub off the camera’s local storage so you never fill up your phone, making it slow and buggy). There is nothing to remember to do, no way to make a mistake. After pics are in the cloud you can tag, describe, organize and share to your heart’s content. Keeping photo evidence of unwanted cars, garbage and various legal notice postings without the possibility of losing something before I file it has been a huge help.
Arlo Pro and Arlo Go cameras: If you want modern surveillance cams, these are part of the new breed of security cameras using artificial neural networks to throw out useless footage and sort humans from tree branches. You can build these up “collection” style - adding one here and there over time. Battery powered - and now they have solar panels as well (yep I have 'em - work like a charm to keep them charged) - so no wiring needed. The AI really works - I get very few “false positives” that are just waving tree branches. Arlo Go is the first and only camera that has a built-in cellular antenna - yep. Want to know who is dumping in your dumpster at night but don’t have wifi or power near there? No problem - mount it up on a tree trunk, aim at the dumpster - pop in the battery (several months of power) and a solar panel if you like - and you’re in busines. The video shows up in your Arlo cloud account.
Nest IQ Outdoor Camera - this drops in November and actually has facial recognition powered by Google. Have a no trespassing on someone? An evicted resident you need to keep an eye out for? Drug dealer and you want to start tracking how many different people come and go? This is the ticket. 4K video and face tagging. You tell it “That’s Billy Bob” and the next time it sees someone it asks if that is Billy Bob. Tell it yes/no and over time it learns to more accurately recognize him from someone else. It does need hard-wired power however. But the video quality is superior to the Arlo cams.
Gopro Hero 5 - what makes this unique for doing drive-through park inspections is also automatic cloud uploading. Once configured this puppy will automagically upload whatever it recorded into the cloud for remote viewing - again taking the techno-incompetent local manager out of the equation.
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