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Butterfleye smart surveillance camera keeps watch with your iPhone

Butterfleye smart surveillance camera keeps watch with your iPhone
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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The Butterfleye camera’s Wi-Fi and iBeacon technologies detect the iPhone and the camera switches from "away" to "home" mode or "auto shutdown."
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The Butterfleye camera’s Wi-Fi and iBeacon technologies detect the iPhone and the camera switches from "away" to "home" mode or "auto shutdown."
The Canary has a three-axis accelerometer night/infrared vision, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, and an air quality detection system
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The Canary has a three-axis accelerometer night/infrared vision, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, and an air quality detection system
Butterfleye allows you to keep tabs on Fido while you're away
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Butterfleye allows you to keep tabs on Fido while you're away
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
Butterfleye includes a microphone and speaker for 2-way conversations
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Butterfleye includes a microphone and speaker for 2-way conversations
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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Butterfleye says its suite of sensors will eventually work with devices like the Pebble smartwatch and Jawbone Jambox
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Butterfleye says its suite of sensors will eventually work with devices like the Pebble smartwatch and Jawbone Jambox
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
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Butterfleye is a wireless home surveillance camera that’s joining the growing ranks of intelligent, smartphone connected webcam systems designed to keep watch while you’re out and about. In addition to allowing you to check in on a live video feed whenever you like via iPhone, this smart camera comes equipped with a thermal sensor, motion detector, and facial recognition technology.

Using a 1080p sensor, video and still shots are captured by the Butterfleye when motion, heat, or faces are detected. Butterfleye’s collection of smart sensors and connected software is branded "Active Eye Technology" by its creators.

Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera
Butterfleye wireless home surveillance camera

If your dog or child is particularly camera-friendly, you might get a collection of "selfies" sent to your iPhone throughout the day. Each of these photos will be available for instant sharing with social networks.

If your dog, child, or significant other is hanging around the camera while you’re watching live, you can also use Butterfleye camera’s microphone and speaker to converse with them.

Butterfleye allows you to keep tabs on Fido while you're away
Butterfleye allows you to keep tabs on Fido while you're away

When you’re connected to the Butterfleye camera with your iPhone and you come within range of the device, it’ll change modes. The Butterfleye camera’s Wi-Fi and iBeacon technologies detect the iPhone and the camera switches from "away" to "home" mode or "auto shutdown."

The Butterfleye camera’s Wi-Fi and iBeacon technologies detect the iPhone and the camera switches from "away" to "home" mode or "auto shutdown."
The Butterfleye camera’s Wi-Fi and iBeacon technologies detect the iPhone and the camera switches from "away" to "home" mode or "auto shutdown."

Butterfleye is also aiming to integrate the camera into the smart home ecosystem by collaborating with developers for connectivity with additional 3rd-party software and devices. The company says its Active Eye Technology suite will eventually work with devices like the Pebble smartwatch and Jawbone Jambox, as well as intelligent lighting systems.

At launch, Butterfleye will work with the iPhone only. At the moment there’s no word on whether or not other smartphone models will be adopted into the ecosystem.

The Butterfleye camera and app is slated to ship in early 2015. At the time of this article’s publication, Butterfleye is still in production, with pre-orders available at a cost of US$199 per unit.

In the video below, the team behind Butterfleye demonstrate its abilities in brief.

While the Butterfleye's array of sensors could give it an edge on other wirelessly networked cameras like Dropcam, we have seen two very, very similar products aimed at modern "smart" security that are headed to market now or early next year – the Blacksumac Piper and The Canary.

With Piper you’ll have many of the abilities offered with Butterfleye, but in a package that’s wired to your wall.

The Canary presents a security solution that’s almost identical to Butterfleye. It has a wide-angle lens with HD capture, motion detection, and the ability to sense a fire. Canary also has a three-axis accelerometer to sense its own movement, night/infrared vision, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, and an air quality detection system.

The Canary has a three-axis accelerometer night/infrared vision, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, and an air quality detection system
The Canary has a three-axis accelerometer night/infrared vision, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, and an air quality detection system

At $199 and set to be delivered this May (after raising $2 million dollars in funding on a $100k goal with IndeGogo earlier this year) Canary looks to be Butterfleye’s biggest competitor.

Source: Butterfleye

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3 comments
3 comments
Mel Tisdale
There is one snag to these devices. There are some jealous husbands who will use them to effectively 'imprison' their wives. It will be bad enough when they are out in the open, i.e. clearly visible, but if the husband concerned is any good with his hands, who know where they could be hidden. The cherry on the cake, so to speak, would be a connection to a hard drive for 24/7 storage.
Even the NSA would be envious to some of the information these could gather - or perhaps they will just take it anyway. How many years is it since 1984?
Daishi
Interestingly another competitor is Dropcam and the verge reported Google/Nest may be in talks to buy them. They also said Apple may launch something similar as part of a smart home platform at WWDC in June and if that happens Samsung probably won't be far behind.
Does anyone remember the movie Sliver with Sharon Stone and William Baldwin? That is pretty much what the capabilities of the NSA could be if all that happens.
Andy Schmitt
and just how secure is this little cutie? Pretty much all the current home monitoring systems have been hacked already...some multiple times... Other than that...it looks pretty sweet...