This Lamp With A Hidden Camera Could Be The Threat To Your Privacy

The concept of a ‘Smart Home’ is not new anymore. When smart devices are cheap and accessible like right now, why not automate your own house to reap all of the benefits of technology? Some people take it easy by having smart speakers like Alexa or Google Home around their house. Some people like to take it a bit further and replace the lights or some appliances with Internet-connected models. For some who are concerned about security, maybe an automated lock for the front door.

And then there’s Panasonic’s terrifying new smart product, the HomeHawk Floor. Just to give you a sense of how worrying this is, even staunch lovers for household automation might think that the company may have taken things a little bit too far with this one.

The HomeHawk Floor is essentially a security camera system. It wouldn’t have made headlines at all if it was just an ordinary security camera, however. The thing is that the camera was cleverly built into the stem of a floor lamp to hide it away from plain view. If you want to covertly and discretely watch for activities happening in the room when you’re away, then this is definitely the thing for you.

Panasonic launched an Indiegogo campaign with the promise that early backers can get the system for as low as $185. After HomeHawk officially makes in the market, the starting price will be $279.

According to Panasonic, the HomeHawk Floor is capable of recording 1080p HD footage. The 140-degree, wide-angle lens will take the responsibility of recording the footages. The system also includes a motion sensor. Probably to avoid false positives, the camera is also programmed so that once the motion sensor is tripped and the camera began rolling, at least two seconds of footage prior to the sensor being tripped would be saved. Two-way communication can also be made through the ‘lamp’ with the microphone and speaker combination inside.

Since it is a security system, the lamp is also designed to operate for 90 minutes in case the power goes out. The ‘back-up power source’ comes from the eight emergency AA batteries loaded inside.

The lamp’s functions will be controlled through your smartphone using an app.

The company also revealed that HomeHawk Floor also works with: “major voice assistants”. By this, they probably mean the trinity Google Assistant, Alexa, and/or Siri. But no actual details have been given about this particular feature. You’ll just have to wait and find out.

Having a concealed security system like the HomeHawk Floor can have many benefits and appeals. If you’re a family with young children, for example, the home would feel more aesthetically pleasing and less intrusive with the HomeHawk. It’s a more pleasant alternative to a menacing CCTV.

However, this is only justifiable because surveillance is necessary to keep the children safe. With the rising popularity of renting services such as Airbnb, this lamp - and others like it - can be a serious privacy issue. Forget about having guests over at your house, it is already unacceptable to surveil even your own children - teenagers, in particular - once they understand and need their own privacy.

Reports about owners of Airbnb rental places hiding cameras and microphones in their places to watch out for the guests have been surfacing. Though Airbnb’s policies stated that the owners must inform you about any kind of recording or surveillance activities taking place, it is literally impossible for the company to enforce their policies. And it is unlikely that if the owner has serious intention to keep you under watch, they’d tell you, either. But while it’d be relatively easy to find and disable rudimentary hidden cameras, like those hidden on shelves or suspicious lens poking out of drilled holes on the wall.

Systems like the HomeHawk Floor would promise an increasingly harder time for you to spot them in the future.

If you look at the HomeHawk Floor’s design now, you might be able to discern it as a surveillance system. The wide-angle lens staring straight back at you when you look at it is a dead giveaway. But if products like this become popular, companies will strive to improve the design. In time, even when you hold it up and look directly at it, it wouldn’t even cross your mind that there’s a camera in your face.

Now that is plain disturbing. Someone observing you, knowing your every moment without you even noticing.