The Ring Always Home Cam: Boost your security, give up on your privacy

5

October

2020

5/5 (3)

Last week, Ring, a company owned by Amazon, unveiled its Always Home Cam, an indoor drone that flies around your house to boost security. This next-level device is a new addition to the highly popular product line Ring has penetrated the market with. The company, founded in 2013, made its way up to a near-monopoly position in the video doorbell market before being acquired by Amazon in 2018 for over a billion USD. The Ring Video Doorbell, the firm’s flagship product, is a highly advanced camera system with a motion sensor that is connected to an app, so homeowners can communicate with people at their door without being physically present. While also functioning as home security, this device is set to be one of the companies revenue collectors in a market expected to grow from $500 million to $1.4 billion in 2023. Next to doorbells, Ring offers lots of other home security devices, including surveillance cameras for inside and outside, cameras with LED lights, alarms, and an app that integrates all devices.

The Always Home Cam is set to become the first day-to-day flying object in people’s homes. It targets customers that want to cover more than one room with a single camera setup and it can be used to scare away intruders and even to check if you left something at your house. This is one of Amazon’s new smart home appliances to add to your collection, next to your smart thermostat, your smart lighting, or smart speaker. Big tech companies are competing to get as much of their devices into your home, so they can gather more data about you and your day-to-day life. After the announcement of the Always Home Cam, a lot of concerns were raised about privacy issues.  It seems a bit weird to secure your home, while, at the same time, a company with a history of privacy issues has the ability to fly around your house recording all your personal belongings.

For the ones that are afraid of these privacy side effects, Ring gives you the ability to restrict the drone to only enter certain rooms. An even better way to prevent privacy issues is to just not buy this product. In my case, I wouldn’t buy this product, although it’s very futuristic and next-level cool. This is more because I simply don’t think I need one. Other smart home appliances are more appealing, like a smart speaker and smart lighting. When I’m ready to buy my first house, a Ring Video Doorbell would be high on my list as well.

My question to you is: How smart is your home, and how smart do you ideally want your home to be? Are you concerned about your privacy when deciding to implement smart devices into your daily life?

When you haven’t seen the Always Home Cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2jFN_QEcS4

References:

https://www.ft.com/content/8eaf8ee5-b074-4d48-b4fa-15d35a185a5d

https://nl-nl.ring.com/collections

https://www.dezeen.com/2020/09/30/amazon-ring-always-home-cam-drone-security-camera/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2018/02/27/amazon-is-buying-ring-the-pioneer-of-the-video-doorbell-for-1-billion/#74b14ac6706c

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/video-doorbell-market

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(company)

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Drone: Ally or Enemy?

24

October

2016

4.67/5 (3)

Nowadays, technology has transformed many industries making them to move away from the classic brick and mortar business to online services. In this way firms could reduce operating costs while offering a larger variation of products. Nonetheless, shipping and postage has remained unchanged through these years with UPS and FedEx being the primary sources for shipping. But recently Amazon challenged the way of shipping with Amazon Prime Air. It is a drone delivery system distributing commercial packages in less than 30 minutes. Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) originated mostly in military applications but the last 2 years civilian drones outnumbered military drones.

Drones are not only invading in the way of transporting goods, but in a few years, they will change the way of doing business in certain industries. The greatest contribution will be made in doctor aid and medical supplies delivery. Zipline, a Silicon Valley company, is working on a project with the government of Rwandan to deliver medical supplies to inaccessible villages, just in a few minutes. Doctors will request through an application specific material and it will be transferred from a medical warehouse facility right to the remote regions. The drones are designed to fly in average 120km and carry up to 1.5kg packages of fragile items which are dropped safely using a parachute. Also, the drones could be in the disposal of fire departments. In France, a company developed a real-time system to monitor fires and the spreads of flames. It will be “an eye in the sky” helping the firemen to take information about the fire and scout the direction of the flames, from a safe zone.

However, we should keep a close eye to the use of drones as they can also create some problems to the world. Just like birds, flying drones caring cargo could be a danger for aircrafts and should be assessed. The UK government is already running a project to test potential collision impacts between a drone and a commercial airplane as there have been several reports of “near misses”. The tests will be conducted by a military contractor with the use of military airplanes. Moreover, experts warn that drones can become “a game changer in the wrong hands”. Foreign embassies, nuclear power stations or a prime minister’s car can become potential targets for a terrorist attack.  Although, remote control warfare is impossible to control, mitigating measures like radio-frequency jammers or no-fly zones could prevent any detrimental action.

From transportation to journalism and from saving lives to guarding, drones will become an incentive for many industries in the way of making business. With pioneers Amazon and Royal Mail, more and more companies will enhance the use of drones to save time, money and limit gas emissions. Yet, possible dangers could arise using drones and the need for flying regulations is mandatory.

 

References:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/18/13314916/drone-crash-airplane-test-uk-dangers

http://www.ibtimes.com/14-ways-drones-will-change-world-1517486

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/27/how-rwanda-is-using-drones-to-save-millions-of-lives.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/11/drones-terrorist-attacks-security-thinktank

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35280402

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Business in the skies – how drones can revolutionize the way of doing business

5

October

2016

5/5 (4)

The introduction and popularization of drones has brought new opportunities for companies in a vast number of industries. It is possible that we are witnessing a disruption similar to the one caused by information technology and telecommunications that altered business models of companies and reshaped whole industries.

Drones, or officially, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are the aerial vehicles that are capable of flying without a human pilot on the board, autonomously or under the remote control. UAVs have been used in military service for some time already and are becoming increasingly popular in the business operations. Drones are currently being tested by Amazon (Amazon PrimeAir) or DHL (Parcelocopter) in companies’ logistic operations.

According to the report Clarity from above published by the PwC in May 2016 the addressable market value of drone powered solutions is estimated at over $127 bn. This is the value of labour and business services that may potentially be replaced by the broad applications of UAVs for business in the nearest future. The affected industries are diverse and range from agriculture to filmmaking. By implementation of the drone technology into their current processes, companies will be able to create new businesses and operating models.

Drones, thanks to the diverse individual characteristics of industries, will be used in many different ways and for various purposes. For example, the transport industry can use UAVs for e-commerce package delivery, fleet management, spare parts delivery or same-day food delivery. The most relevant features of drones for this industry are their speed, accessibility and low operating costs compared with the means of transport that require human labour. The next example is the infrastructure management. Railway, energy and oil and gas companies can use drones effectively for investment monitoring, maintenance and inventory management. Drones may prove to be valuable tools as they are capable of acquiring various data precisely and cost-effectively. What is more, UAVs can replace humans in some hazardous activities, and therefore reduce the number of accidents and increase the overall work safety.

However, there are also factors that may block or make the implementation of drone powered solutions more troublesome and thus slow down the adoption of drones in the business. The first potential barrier are legal regulations. Business entities need clear and transparent rules on how and where drones can be used and how to ensure the safety of drone operations. Another barrier for popularization of drones in business are privacy issues linked to these devices. Data collected by drones may contain private or sensitive information. Clear rules on which information can be collected and stored and how the privacy rights can be defended should be introduced. The last obstacle for popularization of commercial usage of drones is safety. Drone operations have to be supervised and a complex air-traffic management system should be developed in order to eliminate the risk of collisions with other aerial vehicles. Additionally, an auto-fail function, that would prevent the drone from uncontrolled fall to the ground should be included in every UAV.

Drones may bring plentiful of opportunities and benefits to many industries and revolutionize the companies’ operations forever. However, there are also aspects that may make the adoption of drones in the business difficult or impossible. What is your opinion on the future of commercial usage of drones?

 

Sources:

  1. https://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011
  2. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Unmanned+Aerial+Vehicle
  3. http://www.pcworld.com/article/3082649/tech-events-dupe/dhls-parcelcopter-is-automated-drone-delivery-in-action.html
  4. http://www.pwc.pl/en/publikacje/2016/clarity-from-above.html

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