Today’s do it yourself video security systems are both overt and covert.
Wireless security cameras are partially concealed cameras that could be useful if you want to go the stealthy route. In some banks and other establishments, wireless and wired cameras are used, combining visible and hidden cameras to make it extremely difficult for would-be crooks to break in and do their work.
The same applies with Las Vegas’ top casinos. Look around you the next time you enter a casino or a bank.
To give customers the image of safety, they would use visible cameras. That is, they are there to intimidate a potential robber or petty thief from doing anything, knowing that their actions are being recorded. The owners of these establishments want you to see these cameras and they want you to think twice about doing anything naughty in their places of business.
Hidden cameras, naturally, would be next. Most of the time, they are wireless cameras that can be set up in any place, usually in small holes hidden in walls and ceilings, or behind places you wouldn’t expect, thus making them almost impossible to point out. When the visible cameras go down and crimes occur, wireless security cameras would allow business owners to go to the videotape and point out the perpetrator to the authorities.
Most of the time, wireless cameras are battery powered. In other words, they can only monitor other people’s activities for so long. Their advantage is that they can be placed in a variety of easily concealed positions, much more so than a camera that requires a wire to be connected to both its power source and a recording device.
The past few years have seen these cameras become a staple in certain children’s toys and other devices children may use, earning them the nickname “nanny cams”. They have been called “nanny cams” for the reason that they are sued to monitor the behavior of babysitters watching over small children. Horrible abuse sometimes occurs when unbalanced adults are left in charge of toddlers who can’t speak.
Due to the rising incidence of these crimes, parents started using cameras to monitor the babysitter’s actions when out. They would then return home and watch the footage taken by the hidden nanny cams. And a lot of these tapes ended up to be so appalling that they led to the adult babysitter getting tried in court and the tapes played back on YouTube or on the likes of Jerry Springer. Since then they have become a built-in, cleverly concealed device that’s quite often found in homes where young children are being watched by hired help.
Concealed mini cameras are available in a variety of common household and business products making them very effective covert surveillance devices.