The Wireless Covert Camera

I do believe we’re growing into a society of watchers. It seems like we watch more TV than anyone else, more movies, videos and DVDs too. Basically, if it’s been digitized, we will watch it. And maybe even more to the point, we will record it ourselves if we can.

We take snapshots of just about anything and running video of the same – and then we play them back on our phones. We rely a great deal on the recorded image and not just for entertainment either, but for serious purposes as well. For instance, many of us have some kind of home security system set up that uses a camera or two. And when was the last time you walked into a store that didn’t have a surveillance camera?

Surveillance is Big Business

It seems too that as the surveillance industry has grown, so has our thirst for it.  One of the fastest growing segments of the surveillance market is the wireless camera segment. The technology keeps improving making cameras faster, smaller, and better and we’re buying them by the truckloads. Now I’m pretty sure most of us don’t work for some clandestine government agency but we do enjoy our spy cameras.

The first, most publicized use of a home spy camera was probably the so-called “nanny cam” placed in a child’s stuffed animal and designed to watch what the child’s care giver was really up to when the parents were away. The cameras used for that type of surveillance were downright primitive by today’s standards. Now, with more and more wireless covert cameras replacing the older analog cameras, it’s possible to hide cameras almost in plain sight and still keep them concealed.

Today, a wireless spy camera can be made to look like:

• A clock radio

• A solar powered calculator

• A fountain pen

• A wrist watch

• An air freshener

• A table fan

• A smoke detector

• A wall clock

• A key chain fob

• A soda can

• A button

This is just a partial list of “pre-disguised” cameras. There are many companies that can customize a covert camera placement for you as well. You could have a wireless covert camera placed in a tree, a brick, or just about anything you can imagine.

How Does it All Work?

It’s all pretty simple really. Thanks to the ever increasing advances in electronics that have allowed components to become more and more miniaturized, a complete video camera  and video transmitter can now fit onto a tiny circuit board. Throw on a high-resolution lens and you have instant covert surveillance. These mini broadcasting stations can easily be combined with or incorporated into everyday objects. Once they’ve been fitted to the object it’s darn near impossible sometimes to tell if there’s a camera inside.

As good as these hidden camera/transmitters are, they still usually require a receiver to pick up and store the video and audio. These receivers are small too. They can be about the size of the juice box you pack in your child’s lunch. But they’re capable of not only receiving the hidden camera’s signal from over 500 feet away but to also record the video/audio onto an SD (Secure Digital) card. Cards can hold Gigabytes of data and can usually be played back on your laptop or desktop computer. Some receivers can directly connect into your TV for playback and to your VCR for recording to tape.

How to Select a Camera

The biggest thing to consider when deciding on a covert wireless camera is the covert aspect itself. How or where do you want to conceal the camera.  Do you want something that just looks inconspicuous or something that’s 100% concealed as in the per-disguised cameras listed above?

The next thing to consider is what type of lighting you expect your camera to perform in. Will it be used, for instance, indoors where there will always be ambient lighting (as in a retail store)? Or will it be used outdoors where it will have to broadcast in both bright light and dim?

If it needs to work in a significant amount of dim light, than a black & white camera will usually out-perform a color camera. Look for something with a low “Lux” level – Lux is a measurement of light intensity and the lower the Lux, the better the camera works in poor light.

Don’t forget to think about the power source for the camera either. It will probably need to run from battery power so that may require frequent changing. If that’s the case you’ll need easy access to the camera’s power connection and you may want to find a good source of rechargeable batteries too.

Lastly of course, there’s price. Color cameras will be more expensive than black & whites and cameras that provide more resolution will cost more than those with less. The good news is that since there are so many cameras being developed and manufactured, the price is continuously dropping.

Why Would You Need a Covert Camera?

Do you have a lot of covert surveillance operations going on? Probably not, but you may have one or two. Even though the terms “spy” and “surveillance” carry with them a certain amount of negative connotation there are still legitimate reasons for using a hidden or inconspicuous camera.

Maybe you want to monitor your children playing in a part of your house or yard that’s a distance away from where you need to be (like a home office perhaps). Maybe you have an elder parent or loved one who requires similar observation. Maybe it’s not a human at all; maybe it’s your pet.

Perhaps you want to keep a close watch on your home or business without letting anyone know that you’re doing so. One very common use for a hidden camera is at your front door – that way you can see who’s there from another room in the house safely and anonymously. And for those of us with unreliable or even threatening neighbors, a camera or two strategically positioned in the front and back yards can provide a good measure of peace of mind.

In the end a wireless covert camera can be a very useful tool. It’s a great low-cost, do-it-yourself surveillance solution. And it can provide a certain level of security while bringing a certain amount of fun to the equation as well.

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