Hidden Wireless Camera
As you glance at the clock on the wall you think nothing of it…
Little do you know you are being tracked on video all the while you're in the room.
A hidden wireless camera is much less obvious than your typical wireless web camera.
Why?
Your typical wireless IP or web camera looks…well…like a camera. Conical and lense like in appearance, these discreet spy devices are a dead give away that your being watched.
Not so with the hidden web camera, it's designed to fool you with it's un-camera-like apperance.You see...it''s really a high resolution recording device housed in an everyday household item like a clock radio, air ionizer or even a plant. Here's a list of the most popular Spy devices, disguised as household items...
Manufacturers have designed these to be flawlessly discreet… most brands currently available actually function as what they are disguised as… be it a radio, clock or lamp, however the lense is totally hidden no matter how close you scrutinize the device.
Most are simple to use…
Simply set up the device in the room, aim in the direction you need to record and press a button.
Types of Hidden Wireless Cameras
There are 2 basic types of hidden wireless cameras available : stand alone covert wireless camera and the IP wireless covert camera.
Stand Alone Covert Camera
For the stand alone hidden wireless cameras you'll need no other device to transmit or receive signals - no WIFI router or computer - simple even for tech challenged.
As you probably guessed this is simplest type of covert camera. You simply place the device in the room as you would if it were a real clock, radio, smoke detector, or coffee mug etc... aim it in the direction you want to capture and turn on the power...done.
Playback on a stand-alone hidden wireless camera - stand alone devices capture video footage right to the device itself - so all data is recorded onto a removeable SD card which can be taken out and viewed on a DVR or a computer.
No computer or DVR player you say?
No problem…
All of the stand alone devices usually come with an RCA cable output jack that you can connect right to a TV monitor for immediate viewing
One drawback of these hidden wireless cameras is they can be only viewed after the fact - you can't access live video while they're recording as you can with a real wireless web camera which uploads signal in real time to a WIFI router.
How long can you record on an SD card?
Most 1GB SD cards will capture about 4 hours of continuous video.
You can get more memory out of your SD card however if you set the camera to record only still shots at timed intervals. For example you can set the camera to record a still shot every 10 seconds thus greatly reducing the need for memory space. Recording still shots as oppose to continuous video will increase the life span of an SD card from 4 hours to about 1 week.
Hidden Wireless IP Camera
Still disguised as a clock smoke detector or coffee mug , hidden wireless IP cameras allow you to access video as it's being recorded - in real time because all video is transmitted to the internet, not stored on the unit itself.
This camera is prefered over the stand-alone wireless camera if you need to access video in real time
Video is transmited from the camera, which acts as a web server, to your WIFI router which is then uploaded to the internet.
Most covert household IP cameras - whether they're disguised as a clock, smoke detector or coffee mug will allow you to log in to a special website created by the manufacturer and view what your camera is seeing. Typically, all you do is type in the IP address of your camera into the URL box and submit...up pops a live display of whatever you have your camera aimed at.
IP Hidden Wireless Cameras are internet based so you'll need a WIFI router and a computer (to initially configure the camera to the wireless network). The software is always included with the camera purchase - once you load and configure the software you don't need the computer anymore, as the camera itself acts as a web server.
Of course the advantage of the wireless IP covert camera is that you have no time limits on your recording, set it and go, your recording 24/7; stand alone hidden web cameras have limited memory because all video is hard coded to an SD card.