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Bluetooth madness

Posted on 16 Jan 2008 at 16:19

Paul Ockenden looks at the options available for making and taking calls when driving, and also examines a wireless security solution.

But this is where the differences start. The Nokia is essentially a standalone product - put any old SIM from any network in it, PAYG being probably the best bet if you don't expect it to be triggered very often. The 3rdi's SIM, however, is embedded within the unit and isn't user replaceable: that's because with this camera you pay a monthly fee to 3rdi, ranging from £10 to £50, depending on how many activations you expect. Obviously, this means that in many situations the 3rdi camera is going to be more expensive to run than the Nokia, although if you're using it as part of a system to protect several hundred grand's worth of kit then £50 a month shouldn't cause too much sweat.

My bigger concerns arise when it comes to mobile network coverage: typical locations that you might want to protect like a remote holiday cottage, or perhaps a server room, are places where the mobile phone signal will often be lousy. The Nokia PT-6 allows me to slip in whatever SIM connects me to the network with the strongest local signal, but with the 3rdi device I'm stuck with the network that 3rdi uses, currently T-Mobile. Luckily, T-Mobile's network is pretty good these days, but there'll always be holes in coverage, so it would be better to have a choice of network.

Both cameras use PIR (passive infrared) sensor chips for motion detection rather than spotting moving images on their CCD - I'm guessing this saves battery life. The Nokia beats the 3rdi inasmuch as it also has an infrared illuminator, so it can catch night-time burglars and it will also record sound, which the 3rdi can't. The Nokia also includes a temperature sensor and can be set up to send an alert if things get either too hot or too cold.

The most significant difference between the two devices lies in the way they send you alerts and images. The Nokia just creates SMS and MMS messages, along with emails - it's all done in a point-to-point manner. In complete contrast, the 3rdi camera uploads images to a central server, where they're authenticated and date/time stamped: this central server then generates the alert emails/SMS messages and you view the images via a client program loaded onto your mobile phone. I actually find this client a bit cumbersome, with too many key presses required before I get to an actual image. The 3rdi system does have one significant advantage over the Nokia, though, in that because its images are first uploaded to a third-party's system and because they're time and date stamped on receipt, they're far more likely to be accepted as evidence in a court of law.

To sum up, I think in real-world use the 3rdi system falls short of the PT-6 in a number of technical respects, but admissibility in court could turn out to be very important indeed - plus, of course, the 3rdi is available whereas the Nokia isn't! Having said all this, I can't help thinking that many people are now onto their third or fourth generation of camera phone, and so probably have a few older phones sitting in their desk drawer. It must surely be possible to load an application (or even flash new firmware) into such phones to mimic most of the functions of Nokia's PT-6. Of course, motion detection would have to be done in software via the CCD rather than PIR, but that might actually have some important advantages, like making it possible to mask certain areas of the frame so they don't generate alerts. Does anyone know of such an application? If so, drop me an email and I'll mention it in a future column.

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