MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I'm looking for an alarm that picks up if people or cars are on my driveway. If I'm home and in the back garden I don't always hear as I'm partially deaf.
I would like it to send me an sms if I'm abroad so I can see whose there on the internet using cameras in my house. I would also like to be able to speak telling people I know I'm not in the country.
Does such a system exist? I have no idea what I would need.
Thanks.
I know gamekeepers use that type of alarm. They need a mobile phone sim-card to work. Maybe not what you're looking for if it's for home use?
Edit: ignore this edit, sorry.
how about a webcam that sends you an email instead? lots of them about. You could always tie it to an email to sms service....
Any SIM card enabled burglar alarm would do, just don't install the alarm box and have it go off when it detects movement on the drive.....
Take a look at this:
You should be able to do that with a Belkin Wemo together with IFTTT.com not sure if the Wemo motion sensor is suitable for mounting outdoors though.
Most of the D Link high end web cams allow you to set movement zones that then trigger an alert system. Will be widely available on ebay.
I'm a bit stupid. Are they easy to set up?
Be prepared for loads of false alarms per day, I often have a couple of hundred emails from my cam per day, but I only look if something is amiss (never yet). Sighthound is not a bad program to link to supported cameras, can play an alert when it sees something vaguely human shaped so would work ok for you on an ipad or such at home on the same network.
What you need is proper facial recognition software to make any camera worthwhile, it's not cheap though.
HTH.
An alarm mine.. Uses a 12 guage shotgun blank with a tripwire.
Scare the utter crap out of your visitors.
If it were me, I'd buy an SMS burglar alarm and a IR beam sensor and put the sensor across the drive (half way). That way, you only set the alarm off if the beam is broken. Set it 2' off the ground and only a car / person would trigger it (cat would be too low).
I read recently about a doorbell with built in camera that, if your out, rings you on your phone like a Skype chat.
You can see who it is and speak to them through it. ie put the parcel in the shed etc, even if you're abroad.