Amaryllo’s USS$199.99 Apollo is one of the most multi-faceted home security devices I’ve run across. It’s an auto-tracking indoor security camera that uses biometric features to help monitor your home, though you’ll need an Amaryllo subscription to take advantage of some of its features.
If you buy the Amaryllo security camera, you get the option to purchase various plans including unlimited cloud storage for up to a year. The paid subscriptions give you access to facial recognition for up to 10 people, fire warning, human, pet and vehicle detection, and a heat tracking activity map.
The Fire Warning sends a push notification directly to your iPhone or Android device in case of a fire. (The Apollo works with iOS/iPadOS devices, as well as the Android operating system.) The activity map the provides you with an image to decipher the most used and unused parts of your home.
The Apollo packs a 360-degree camera and can quickly swivel, pan, and tilt to track whatever it spots. You can set its camera to ignore what’s behind it if you have it installed next to a wall. If you don’t, the Apollo will rotate all the way around when tracking. Also, two-way talk lets you talk to whoever is in front of the camera
The camera boasts built-in features such as two-way communication, facial recognition, night vision, and motion-activated notifications. The security camera can detect humans and animal presence, even when it can’t see a face.
Speaking of facial recognition, the Apollo can learn faces and identify them. To help your camera learn your face and the mugs of another nine folks you want included for facial recognition, you have to tilt the biometric camera to different angles and let it take pictures (in up to 1080p resolution). It’s a pretty easy process, akin to setting up Face ID on an iPhone.
The Apollo is a “friendly” device. It greets you in a human (ish) voice if you’re being tracked.
The pet detection feature allows users to be informed on what the Apollo is seeing directly from a notification on their phone. You can spot dogs, cats and birds from up to 20 feet away.
Once the Apollo has the data, it can identify the aforementioned 10 folks in videos. You can even “teach” the camera learn the names of the people it spots. Then, for instance, you can be notified when they get home or when they pass in front of the camera.
The Apollo can recognize more than 100 different sounds; however, for security purposes, the folks at Amaryllo have narrowed the sound recognition technology down to detecting: the sound of glass breaking and the sound of a smoke detector alarm beeping to warn users of home intrusions or potential fire hazards. In the case of a break-in, the Apollo can use its surprisingly loud siren to scare off intruders.
What’s more, the Apollo has 256-bit Military Level Encryption to help your data private.
You can use the Amaryllo app (a free download at the Apple App Store and Google Play) to view motion alerts, though you’ll only see image clips of whoever or whatever triggered motion. The app also makes setting up the security camera relatively painless.
You’ll need to connect your mobile devices to a 2.4GHz band Wi-Fi before setup. They can then connect to 5GHz band Wi-Fi, assuming you have it, for viewing after the setup is complete.
One thing I really appreciate is the privacy feature that you can enable via the app. You can set up a schedule to have the camera turn away and off during a set time frame each day.
To store video files, you’ll need to use the Amaryllo Cloud or Google Drive. I’d love for an iCloud option, but there’s not one. You can also store them in a 128GB microSD card.
Review overview
The Pros
- Has a plethora of features
- Camera can rotate 360 degrees
- Can learn up to 10 human faces
The Cons
- Subscription required to keep using all features
- No iCloud option for online storage
- A bit pricey
summary
9You may not need all the bells and whistles of the Apollo. But if you an indoor security systems that does have ALL the bells the whistle, this is your baby.
