Ring, the purveyors of video doorbells, cameras and alarm systems, wants to add a new line of tech to home defence: drones.
Originally shown off as a concept device back in 2020, the Always Home Cam is now ready for its moment in the sun. Well, a limited moment, as it’s only listed as part of parent-company Amazon’s Day 1 Editions for early invited early adopters at the moment.
While the military has ensured that plenty of people associate drones with deadly force, you’ll be unsurprised to know that the Always Home Cam is unarmed. No doubt some aspiring modder is plotting a way of attaching a nerf gun to pepper would-be intruders with foam bullets but, by Ring’s design, it’s intended to patrol and record footage, in the same way that Amazon’s Astro robot — another Day 1 Edition — does.
Debuting at CES, the drone is designed to cover one floor, Engadget reports. It’s not autonomous, and requires you to train it, walking it around the house to set a series of flightpaths and useful waypoints with the built-in camera. With these set, you can remotely fire up the drone and check whether you’ve left the oven on, and ensure that your collection of priceless Faberge eggs is exactly where you left it.
You can check in on the footage via the existing Ring app, and should you spot something amiss on its flight, you can theoretically pause the drone in midair and rotate, to get a 360-degree view of the area.
I say “theoretically” because despite appearing as a listing on the Amazon site, there’s no public release date mentioned. Or a price, for that matter. But the fact that it’s there at all, combined with its CES debut suggests that the Ring Always Home Cam may soon be ready to protect your home/irritate your pets in the very near future.
