Home surveillance is very important to many households. For some, it can become a bit of an obsession. With the iZON Remote Room Monitor, video of what goes on in your home when you’re not there can be streamed right to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad wherever you have a mobile or Wi-Fi connection.

New software that is being released through the company Cataphora can analyze whether an employee is a productive worker or not. The way that the software will work is that it analyzes electronic footprints left behind by each employee. This includes monitoring emails sent, calls made, and documents worked on. The software will also alert more »

Recently, we brought to your attention the Vue personal video network. The device allows you to set up video cameras that connect to the internet easily. Gadgetell had a chance to take a more in-depth look at Vue’s web interface with Dan Gilbert, Vice President of Marketing for Avaak.

Have an area around the house you want to keep an eye on? Maybe you want to watch a kid’s room, your garage with your prized car, or just your front door. There are a number of webcam solutions that will let you monitor things, but there’s usually a cumbersome set up process involved. Avaak more »

If you live in a bad neighborhood, where those darned teens like stealing your patio furniture, investing in a home surveillance system may be just the solution. However, such a rig is pretty expensive to set up, and then it is hard to monitor, as you can only monitor it from your home. Cernium’s latest more »

Power over Ethernet (“PoE”) is nothing new. Usually, PoE is used to power switches and other networking devices. A company called Baumer Ltd. is using PoE to power cameras over Cat6 cable. The “TXG camera” can shoot at VGA and higher resolutions and up to 90 frames per second.

Where would you use something like this? It probably could be used in surveillance or in some kind of robot. These TXG cameras are tiny and weigh less than a quarter pound. You can get a sense of scale by looking at the Ethernet jack on the back of the device.

Camera giant Olympus has been recently playing with the idea of a 360-degree camera lens. The company believes that it could be marketed for surveillance purposes.

This makes sense, as most cameras are only designed to shoot at one angle, and perpetrators can easily get around the ones that can swivel. However, a 360-degree horizontal image cannot be avoided.

The image in the vertical is only 180 degrees, which may not be enough to see anything of interest on the ceiling, but it is enough to get more of a view than normal.

Another obvious application is video conferencing. Now a room filled with many people can be easily pictured without an automatic focus.