Easy Connect Network IP Camera
© 2009 Lorex Corporation
Designed for peeking in on a classroom, sleeping baby -- or your sump pump -- from a remote location by way of your laptop or web-enabled phone, the Easy Connect Network IP Camera ($300, www.lorexcctv.com) taps into your home or school Wi-Fi network to broadcast what it sees and hears, letting you observe from afar. The walkie-talkie sized camera comes with a ring of illuminating LEDs, a microphone and a motion sensor. If you think of this device as a webcam, without the computer attached, you get the idea of how this works. Compared with typical baby monitor, this camera is pretty tricky to figure out. Getting the camera focused and working in order to spy on our test dog required a few rather technical steps that you may not suspect you need to do, given the words "Easy Connect" in the title. First, you must synch the camera to your router, by hard wiring it to a free ethernet plug in your router with the included cable. Once you've turned on the camera, you must install the software on a Windows computer on the same router to find the camera. Next, you must register your camera with a third party surveillance company called Yoics (the price for the basic package is included with the $300). This involves downloading and installing software, either for Macintosh or Windows computers. We tried the Macintosh version, and found that the sound didn't work (tech support said that sound only works with Windows Explorer/Windows). Once your account is in place, you can mount your camera wherever you have a free AC outlet and a Wi-Fi signal, and log into your account. Presto, there was our dog, sound asleep on the couch. If you share your password with another person, he or she can join you in your dog, or sump-pump, spying.
$300, Smart Toy
Teaches: a remote surveillance camera