How to use iPhone for pet monitoring

You may feel concerned about leaving your pet alone at home. Whether your cat needs additional attention during a challenging period, or you want to make sure that your dog doesn't bark too loud. A pet monitor is the go-to tool to take care of your pet while you are away from home.

When do you need a pet monitor

Some pets behave well when staying at home without human attention, while others are not as independent. Some pet owners are comfortable raising their dogs to be self-reliant, while some consider the pets as central of their life. For those who wonder whether a pet monitor is needed for them, following are situations that remote pet monitoring is helpful.

• Check in on pet safety: You may often find troubles at home when you come back from work or vacation. Or you want to make sure that your dog sitter follow your instructions of daily care. Sometimes your dog has a temporary health problem that needs additional care. Besides, some dogs throw a tantrum when their owners leave home for an extended period of time. Then, the ability to monitor your pet remotely would let you aware of the problem as soon as it happens and gives you more control over your pet safety or your home safety.
• Record special moments: While you spend a vast amount of time away, you may miss funny and lovely moments of your pets at home. The pet monitor that can capture footage automatically will give you a way to save those moments. Not only for you, for your family and friends, pet images and videos could be a great source of joy.

How it works

A pet monitor is an audio and/or video transmitting system that allows you to hear or view the pet while out of distance. The system often consists of a recording device and a view device (usually a mobile phone with a pet monitor application installed), both are connected to the Internet. Some pet monitor system may have alerts when the dog barks or cries, two-way audio or treat tossing. Those that has audio detection, motion detection or AI-powered human detection and animal detection can record videos automatically when there is a movement. Motion detection is relatively less accurate, as it cannot differentiate movement of a pet, a human or other objects.

A simple solution for pet monitoring

There are options for professional pet monitors in the market that cost from ~$30 to ~$170 upfront, as well as monthly subscription for additional storage and advanced features. But if you have a spare iPhone or iPad, then you have already had a tool to use for pet monitoring. You only need to install a security camera or pet monitoring app. It should allow you to stream video and audio. Other helpful features are barking alert, dog detection, cat detection and two-way audio.

AiCam for pet monitoring

To set up, you will need:

• An iPhone or iPad.
• Mount / tripod. You can mount your phone or table on the wall or put it on a tripod placed near the area you want to monitor. There are more accessories for your phone to work better for surveillance, such as rotating cell phone stand and wide-angle lens.
• Charger (optional). If you plan to monitor the pet continuously for over a few hours, you’ll need to connect your phone to power to ensure uninterrupted monitoring. If you only use it for less than an hour, your phone battery probably works just fine.
• Install and set up app. You’ll need at least one device to use as camera device and one as view device. After downloading AiCam app, adding the devices with the same iCloud account. Turn on streaming in the camera device, then you can view and adjust camera from other devices. Turn on dog detection or cat detection (premium subscription required) if you wish to record videos of your pet automatically.
• Schedule automated monitoring by time and location (optional). You can set up AiCam to record events only when you are not at home, or during certain time of the day or of the week.

It is helpful to know that a repurposed phone for pet monitoring can work anywhere, as it has battery as uninterruptible power supply and cellular connection. You can move it around your house or carry it with you. If you use the AiCam app, it also has features for baby monitoring and home security, so you can use it interchangeably.