Remote Arm/Disarm

[shawneric]

Devin,

I'll be up front and honest, the fact is the mobile app SUCKS. I can never get it to login, and when it does, it doesn't give me much functionality because it's slow and again, basically worthless. I have an entire security system setup with Sighthound and IFTTT, my lights turn red, flash, I get a text AND a phone call, a loud siren sounds, and all of my locks in my house automatically lock. This happens when sighthound detects a person in a specific area. The problem is, in order to enable the rule, I have to be sitting right in front of my computer, and as soon as I get up, my whole system goes crazy.

So you see the problem here? I am tempted, I am THIS CLOSE [ <----> ] to getting rid of sighthound because it doesn't do what I want it to do. If you can make actions with IFTTT so that we can remotely arm and disarm specific rules, then I will be 100% fine, I can geofence and all that crap with IFTTT, I don't need sighthound to do that for me, I just need it to better integrate. I know, it might not be on the top of your priority list, but you've already had several customers ASK for this, and there are hundreds who haven't asked for it but would very much so like it a lot. I'm paying for this software. I'd like to ask that our requests actually have some merit to them and be taken seriously. Do you want more customers? Do you want me partnerships? Then fix this issue. If not, you're going to lose customers, starting with me.


-Eric

[HITECHTLS]

+1 for someone holding out on purchasing a license until this feature is implemented. Without some way to do geofencing, i cannot find a simple enough way to arm/disarm cameras by both myself and my girlfriend. IFTTT is very slow with their polling architecture, but at least it is a first step until more sophisticated code can be written to be handled internally and securely though SightHound.

Please offer an IFTTT action handler so we can use third party software to arm/disarm cameras and recording.

-Dan

[ryan]

It would be fantastic to have Sighthound Video be a 'that' target for IFTTT recipes, however there are some major technical barriers that make this impossible in the current application. The biggest being that Sighthound Video is a service that runs on your local machine, not in the cloud. Your data is not routed through a service to which IFTTT can connect and make changes. The 'this' source in IFTTT works precisely because that is a 'push' operation that is sent from the application, nobody needs access to your system.

Many of our customers choose Sighthound Video precisely because it is a privately hosted system, and we nor anyone else have access to the application/network to make changes. That being said, we would love to have a public, extensible API on top of which any number of features or additional services could be build. I'd love to be able to out of the box use Sighthound Video as an IFTTT response, though this would need to be opt-in and there is necessarily a great deal of planning and care and security measures that must be in place when creating such a system that allows external clients and applications to make changes to your security system.

[HITECHTLS]

I believe IFTTT works as push/poll based on the implementation of the software. This is a major reason why i do not like IFTTT, as the poll option has a minimum frequency of 15 minutes (if i am remembering correctly) and is quite laggy when it comes to certain action handlers. Sadly a consumer cannot define the operation and IFTTT remains behind its competitors in autonomous capabilities due to this lag (most likely to save mobile battery life).

I do not see the issue with using a local application (made by SightHound) on a mobile device that has IFTTT integration (echo localhost) that could backhaul the secure actions over a VPN tot he SightHound server. This offers the security of network segregation and requires no cloud outside of IFTTTs basic offering.

Honestly, a stable Android (or IOS) application that points to an internet IP (DynamicDNS/Static/Whatever) with port accessibility or DMZ to the SightHound server computer with some form of authentication and/or encryption could enable the possibility of geofencing. Make this multi user capable so not limited to only one security key (phone).

I am not seeing where feature creep causes a security issue

[shawneric]

All I'm asking for is an option to control the rules themselves remotely. I can turn the cameras on and off, but I have no power at all to control the rules themselves remotely. As far as how IFTTT operates and the software's interaction itself with IFTTT, I think that's hogwash, and here's why. IFTTT won't need to poll do anything like that. If I were to say, "If text from specific number with hashtag #lightsoff, THEN turn off rule "people in living room". I think that's very simple. As it stands, the ONLY option we have available is to set a five minute timer, arm the cameras manually, and then make sure we're gone in that timeframe we set. It's absolutely ridiculous. Who is going to sit at their computer constantly every single time they want to turn their system on and off? If Sighthound can remotely accept a "cameras off" command, then why the heck won't it also accept a "deactivate rule" command?!

[ryan]

@HITECHTLS -

I don't typically see much of any delay with IFTTT, perhaps a specific response you are using has more builtin delay?

@shawneric -

The remote access web interface supports enabling and disabling individual rules. We will also add this option to the mobile apps in a future release. As for IFTTT, I certainly wasn't making anything up in my previous response. There would need to be a cloud system that knows about your individual Sighthound Video installation and has the ability to remotely control it and that is not something that exists.

[shawneric]

I don't think I even realized that there was a remove web interface for sighthound, I think I thought it was just the app. I'll definitely have a look at that.

As for there not being the platform available for sighthound to remotely deactivate certain rules, I understand the Sighthound team has a lot on their plates, and maybe something like this isn't on their minds, much less their roadmaps. So I have to ask, is this something the sighthound community could piece together? Is there the ability to do this without rewriting or recoding the software itself, maybe something that lays in front of it? Perhaps a lightweight server on your local machine that acts as a third party for an interchange like IFTTT to communicate with sighthound?

I can definitely with 100% certainty tell you that this is something the community in Sighthound has repeatedly requested, asked for, and shown interest in, it's something we really need, and even if all of that wasn't the case, at the VERY LEAST, developing a capability like this for SightHound wouldn't just make you oodles of money, but it'd also set you apart from every other competitor our there. I don't know any company that has software that even links with IFTTT at all, but to fully integrate your software in this manner, while it might take a lot of work and effort and even money, it DEFINITELY is something SightHound NEEDS to do. If the sighthound devs aren't able to set aside the time to do it right now, I want to know if we as the community can band together to make this ourselves until you're able to make your own integration?

[HITECHTLS]

Confirmed by IFTTT, 15 minutes on standard triggers (polling). Any custom made triggers fall into this category. Only "Quick Triggers" get push capability and have a lightning bolt to indicate. This is quite aggravating as this is only done to save network resources and battery life, but customers don't have the option to modify.

http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questi ... ing-action

https://www.quora.com/IFTTT-1/What-is-t ... k-triggers

[shawneric]

I encourage you to do a little more research. While IFTTT does have the 15 minute rule, which is horrible for any kind of security appliance, I've found that Texting and PushBullet get almost immediate results. I personally use pushbullet with most of my other security software for this very reason. It's quite effective.

[HITECHTLS]

Sadly as a CompE, I gave up software at hire. I've been doing Aerospace/EE/SE for 8 years and am so far removed from the specifics of software, I would be of no use in writing useful code.

Maybe something with LabVIEW :p