(BPT) – There’s a distinctly unwelcome sentiment that every parent, no matter how vigilant, must experience once in a while. You might know it as, “that was close.”
It happens when your child’s sense of adventure unexpectedly outpaces your vigilance. Stephanie Hinderks, a mother of two, remembers the exact moment she felt it.
“I overheard my 5-year old son plotting a midnight play date with the girl next door,” Hinderks recalls. “It was innocent, but the plan was to sneak out after my husband and I were asleep.”
Hinderks quickly made her home more secure after the incident by installing a home security system powered by Alarm.com, an advanced smart home technology platform. In a twist of fate, Hinderks now works for Alarm.com and has just helped launch their newest feature. It’s called Unexpected Activity, and it alerts homeowners to unusual activity around the home that could indicate danger.
If you’re a parent, Unexpected Activity notifications are another reason to look into replacing your traditional security system. While the old technology in your house is good for alerting you when something bad has happened, this modern security technology can actually warn you before something goes wrong.
Using an advanced machine learning capability called the Insights Engine, Alarm.com is able to learn the activity patterns of any individual home and send an alert to the homeowner’s smartphone when something is out of place.
Even had Hinderks not overheard her son’s conversation, an Unexpected Activity notification would have foiled his plans within seconds of the front door generating the alert. Combined with a parent’s typically quick-thinking response to potential danger, the feature serves as an excellent safeguard for curious kids.
“As my children grow older, I feel reassured that I have a new ‘sixth sense’ for unexpected activity,” Hinderks says. “My daughter is now 5 and loves to play in the back yard; now, I’ll know if she ventures out there at a strange time. My son, meanwhile, is very interested to see what’s in the garage, and it’s only a matter of time before he works out how to let himself in. My husband is often in there on the weekend, but if that door opens unexpectedly during a weekday, I’ll know right away what’s happening.”
The alerts are the latest in a set of features that Alarm.com calls “proactive safeguards” — advanced, automated technologies that trigger actions on a homeowner’s behalf. As well as alerting you to unexpected activity, Alarm.com can proactively remind you when you forget to lock up, adjust your home’s temperature to save energy when you leave for work, shut off your home’s water in response to a leaking pipe, and alert professional help in on your behalf in an emergency.
“It’s really the next generation of home security systems,” Hinderks says. “Rather than simply reacting to commands, it uses smart home technology to take action for you, without being told.”
Behind the scenes, things are far more complex than a traditional security system, with Alarm.com’s cloud platform processing data from devices and sensors throughout the home — a typical Alarm.com setup comes professionally installed with contact sensors on doors and windows, motion sensors, and a whole array of optional connected devices. As complex as it sounds, however, the experience of using it is surprisingly intuitive, with a single smartphone app controlling everything in the home.
“It’s advanced technology, built by the smartest engineers and data scientists,” Hinderks says. “However, it’s built specifically to make life easier and smarter for ordinary families. Millions of homeowners love it, and sleep easier thanks to it.”
To find out more about smart home security systems, visit Alarm.com.
