I have found that Oco Wireless Home Surveillance Cameras are some of the most easily automated cameras available today. How do you do that? By using a service called IFTTT. This is a free service that facilitates integration with devices and services such as gmail, your phone, Facebook and Pinterest. IFTTT is an acronym for “If This Then That”. You can do some very cool stuff with IFTTT for Oco cameras. IFTTT isn’t owned by Oco. It is independent of the devices that are supported.
This article will show you how to integrate IFTTT for Oco cameras and highlight some of the automation capabilities.
First thing to do is visit the IFTTT web site and register. Once you get there, you will notice what they call recipes. These are pre-written scripts to facilitate integration. IFTTT for Oco entails use of an Oco specific recipe. It allows integration between an Oco Wireless Home Surveillance Camera and other services or devices. You can search for Oco within the IFTTT site and will see a lot of recipes.
There are also objects called channels. Each officially integrated device has a channel. There’s an Oco channel which you need to activate to use these services. it connects to the Oco mother ship using your supplied credentials. This establishes the link between IFTTT and Oco.
Now you can begin to use some Oco recipes.
One of my favorite IFTTT for Oco recipes is one that notifies you of when the camera is offline. I have had my home security cameras go offline for a variety of reasons and it’s nice to be proactively notified to allow repair of the issue.
The accompanying photo with this article is what to look for within IFTTT. Be sure to link up your email address and it’s simple to set up. Once the recipe is established, you will receive an email each time your Oco camera unexpectedly goes offline.
Another favorite set of recipes provide geo-location services integrated with your Oco camera. This is a set of two recipes that use your phone’s location to tell whether you are home or not. If home, it turns the camera off. If away, it turns the camera on. Especially useful for those that would prefer to maintain video privacy when present at home.
IFTTT for Oco Wireless Home Surveillance Cameras also integrates other devices with your camera. Take the Phillips Hue Light Bulb Automation Starter Kit as an example. On it’s own, you can turn the lights on and off with your smartphone. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could tie in motion control from the Oco camera with a light switch? The If motion is detected by my Oco camera turn my Philips Hue bulb on integrates all these services. Once this is activated, a light fixture with a Phillips Hue Bulb will turn on when motion is detected.
That type of recipe is great for scaring the heck out of an intruder. It’s not so great for scaring the heck out of your wife when you forgot to tell her that you linked all this up. Lesson learned is tell your wife about all home automation projects before activation. Moving on.
These are just a handful of useful recipes available for Oco Wireless Home Surveillance Cameras. There are plenty of others including the ability to integrate your Oco camera with Alexa or a Nest thermostat. New recipes come on board regularly so if you don’t see what you want today, check back in a few weeks and you might find what you need.