Giving us a nice glimpse into how smart home will change in 2024, Reolink unveils its new outdoor security camera that promises to not only deliver a 180-degree panoramic feed, but also provide images with minimal distortion, providing better coverage of your outdoor space commandments. room.
Launching at CES 2024 (January 9-12), the Reolink Duo 3 PoE, a 16MP UHD home security camera, uses the two lenses and Reolink image stitching algorithm to capture two images from slightly different angles. and merge these two images to produce a panoramic image with minimal warpage.
While it's not exactly a new technique and Reolink has yet to share details on how the stitching technology works, most home security cameras and video doorbells suffer from what's known as a fisheye effect — an unfortunate result of their attempts to provide a wider view to provide the greatest possible coverage of your space. This doesn't necessarily have a huge impact on your overall security, but it still degrades image quality at the edges.
What Reolink is trying to do here is ensure that you get a crisp and clear picture everywhere, something that could come in handy especially if there is an incident at your home and you need to provide video evidence to the police.
A security camera like any other
Although it captures footage unlike other home security cameras, the Reolink Duo 3 PoE still comes with everything needed to ensure your safety. It includes motion detection and tracking, alerts, app support and color night mode, made possible by the eight built-in spotlights. We're told it will also work with Alexa and Google Assistant, although we're still confirming details on how you can control it with these voice assistants.
A curious feature that it brings and that you would be difficult to see on other models is that it is able to “present the trajectory of the detected person for a convenient example through the movements of the person over time in a single image” to give users a complete overview of an event. How exactly that works and what benefits it has for the safety of your home, we will have to wait and see until we have a device in our hands to test.
However, because it is a PoE (Power over Ethernet) camera, it must be connected to a PoE Injector via a network cable. The good news, however, is that it doesn't require professional installation, meaning you can set it up yourself. If you prefer a cable-free experience, Reolink will also likely release a battery-powered Wi-Fi version later this year.
It's more affordable than you think
While the dual-lens setup and 180-degree panoramic shot are a novelty in the world of smart home security, the Reolink Duo 3 PoE is surprisingly more affordable. At £179.99 / €239.99 (we're still confirming UK prices), it's more affordable than the Arlo Pro 5S and the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, two of the best home security cameras on the market.
The Duo 3 PoE is scheduled for release on February 21, 2024 and will be available in the US, UK and Europe.
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