One of the many home monitoring devices is the home security motion sensor. There are several types of motion sensors and that even includes digital video camera systems. In the following article we’ll take a look at a few home security motion sensors and see how they work. Hopefully this will help you to decide what type of home security motion sensor you need.
A home security motion sensor system is an excellent tool to provide security and surveillance for almost any residential application. Modern technological advancements have made this camera system incredibly versatile and reasonable priced as well.
A home security motion sensor system may be used indoors or outdoors (or both for a given system). Outdoor sensors and cameras (as opposed to indoor sensors and cameras for example) are designed to be housed by a protective enclosure. The enclosure protects the camera from weather, dust, and other objects.
A home security motion sensor camera may be rated according to the protection that is afforded to it by the enclosure or its casing. This rating, an Electrotechnical International Commission (EIC) standard, is call an Ingress Protection rating, IP rating, or IP code.
The rating consists of the letters “IP” followed by two digits, for example IP65. The first digit of the rating describes the extent the camera is protected from solid objects and the second digit indicates the extent the camera is protected from liquids. The example IP65 rating means the camera is dust free and protected from water sprayed from nozzles in any direction.
The first digit of an IP rating for an outdoor motion activated security camera system ranges from 0 – 6 with 0 indicating that there is no protection against contact or ingress of objects. As the number increases from 0 to 6, the rating indicates that the camera is protected from objects continually smaller in size. A first digit IP rating of 6 indicates no dust and complete protection against contact.
The second digit of an IP rating for the camera ranges from 0 to 8 with 0 indicating that there is no protection from water. As this digit increases in value the rating indicates progressive protection from water with 1 meaning protection from dripping water and 8 meaning continuous immersion in water.
A home security motion sensor security camera system also has a unique characteristic as indicated by its descriptive name. The cameras only record video when motion is detected.
This is accomplished by an on-board Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor. The PIR sensor can detect the infrared radiation from objects in the camera’s field of view. If the sensor detects a significant change in the infrared radiation in this view, it assumes it is created by a moving object; hence it detects “motion.” The sensor is connected to a relay that turns the camera on in recording mode to capture the video images. The camera shuts off or stops recording when the sensor detects that the motion has stopped or after a pre-programmed period of time.
This feature, though small and simple in design and appearance, can offer tremendous benefits in the functioning of a home security motion sensor system. Since the camera will only record video when motion is detected, this can save a tremendous amount of file space used on the system’s Digital Video Recorder or DVR.
In addition, all of Security Camera King’s DVRs can be connected to the Internet, so if a camera detects motion, the DVR can be programmed to send you an email, alerting you of the fact as soon as it happens.
A less elaborate mechanism one could use is a PIR motion detector as the sole home security motion sensor. This of course, would be wired (or transmitted by radio waves for wireless models) to an alarm system main panel which then could call specified telephone numbers. When someone answers on the other end, a specific message, usually previously recorded by you, the owner plays. However, this method though admittedly simpler and cheaper, will not be able to provide actual visual documentation of the perpetrators.
The PIR sensor on a home security motion sensor activated security camera uses a very small amount of power to stay on. In fact, compared to the power required to capture video, the PIR sensor’s power usage is significantly lower. Motion activated cameras that operate on battery power last significantly longer between charges or battery changing because the motion sensor, in effect, conserves battery power.
