I think this product has some genuine uses for the concerned cat guardian. It is an in-house webcam which allows you to keep an eye on your cat when you aren’t at home or in a different part of the home. One of the best things about it is that it provides you with a summary in terms of a time-lapse sequence of your cat’s movements throughout the day. This can be extremely instructive and may provide information to the cat caretaker which makes him or her more aware of what her cat gets up to. It may highlight certain problems in behaviour. It may throw up some weaknesses in the standard of cat caretaking which can then be dealt with by a concerned owner.

https://youtu.be/qUydD9ycSWQ

The product I am referring to is called the Withings Home. It blends in with the home and also allows the person to communicate with their cat if required (this may be unworkable or less than useful). It is not actually designed necessarily for observing companion cats. I believe it’s main function is to observe babies and children in a different part of the home.

There is a sort of Big Brother element about this product meaning that one is watching over people and if there are guests in the home it is probably going to be disliked and uncomfortable but I am referring to it as a tool to improve the quality of cat ownership in a busy world when the owner is often out of the home.

A lot of the time we have no idea what our cat gets up to when we are out of the home. This camera resolves that problem and as mentioned I believe the most important element of it is that you can see time-lapse sequences which is time compressed which provides an alternative view of what is going on. In addition, this camera communicates with your smart phone so you can watch the results on your smart phone.

There is a page on the BBC News website which has videos produced by this product. There are other similar products by different manufacturers, I believe, including Google’s Dropcam.

Perhaps the only downside is that if a person is living with another person and that ‘other person’ is at home a lot, he or she may object to the camera’s presence and quite understandably. Therefore, I think it is most suited to a person living alone who wants to keep an eye on pets or a mother wishing to keep an eye on children in a large home who happened to be in a different room.

Oh, and they now have a built in air sensor to check the quality of the air inside the home. And it detects movements and then alerts the owner via their phone of tablet computer.